Phones ring in new beginning
Phone lines to the Lucindale Health Centre have been reconnected during times local nurses are rostered on duty. From Reedy Creek, Keilira and Woolumbool to Spence, Callendale, Furner, Biscuit Flat, Greenways and everywhere in between - the Lucindale community can once again ring the local health centre they built themselves.
Minister awaits report
As The [Naracoorte Community] News deadline loomed last week, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) was still working on reconnecting telephone services to the Lucindale Health Centre. And Health Minister Chris Picton expects to hear from a working group regarding nursing services at Lucindale “by the end of this month”.
“GP tax” burden
A trip to the doctor is expected to soar by an extra $12 per visit under a State Government bid to claw payroll tax out of independent GP clinics. Following a brief amnesty, the extra $12 charges for GP visits will go straight into State Government coffers.
Mayor calls for phone to be reinstated
Reconnecting the telephone at Lucindale’s Health Centre would be a first step towards healing a rift between the community and the $243 million Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) which slashed its services. Naracoorte Lucindale mayor Patrick Ross hoped the phone line would be reinstated by the end of last week, or early this week.
Ssh! Secret meeting!
Last night ... a secret meeting regarding nursing services at Lucindale was scheduled to be held behind locked doors. Patients, public and the media were excluded from the private gathering in the town's rarely used council chamber. With an “invitation only” guest list which expanded from “a chosen few” to around 24 people, the meeting was organised by the $243 million Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN).
Nurse Ali ‘saved my leg’
Lucindale's Cheryl “Fitzy” Fitzgerald has only praise for the Lucindale nurse who three years ago saved her leg, and possibly her life ... So Ms Fitzgerald was shocked recently when she tried to make an appointment for a blood test at Lucindale.
Bureaucrats on notice – working groups to form
Health bureaucracies that slashed rural nursing services for the sick and elderly have been put on notice by Member for MacKillop Nick McBride and Health Minister Chris Picton ... Without consultation, on January 22 the green rubber rings of two Local Health Networks squeezed out rural nursing services at Lucindale, Tintinara and Coonalpyn. People with cancer, MS, heart conditions and the elderly were told to drive round trips of 80kms or more for many nursing services. Most have no ability to drive. There is no public transport.
Government tells sick and elderly to drive 80km
Without consulting three rural communities, the SA Government has abruptly slashed nursing services to people with cancer, heart conditions and multiple sclerosis. Sick, infirm, and elderly people at Lucindale, Tintinara and Coonalpyn have been told to go to larger towns...
Welcome everyone!
“Welcome everyone” is the decision of Naracoorte Lucindale Council which has ditched its prayer and modernised its acknowledgement of country ... replaced with two simple lines: “We acknowledge and respect our complex history. We welcome everyone to build our future together.”
Govt deer cull: “Lives at risk”
Roaring helicopters armed with military grade thermal imaging and semi-automatic shotguns aim to destroy any deer in their path ... Sometimes people on the ground fear for their lives and the welfare of their livestock ... "Someone is going to get shot," several feared.
