SA

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”.

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.

The Opposition is calling on Peter Malinauskas to explain how he plans on delivering his election commitments of Treaty and Truth following the recent state-based Voice to Parliament elections. The Malinauskas Labor Government’s election commitment says: 'SA Labor has already committed to a state-based implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart that includes Voice, Treaty and Truth.' The recent SA Voice to Parliament elections saw less than 10 per cent of the eligible population turn out to vote with some of the 46 successful candidates elected with as few as six votes.

Three debt-ridden properties in the district were auctioned by the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council last week to recoup unpaid rates and legal costs of up to $100,000. The council says it had to put the properties under the hammer as it had exhausted all other options to recover the debts, which date back to 15 years in some cases. The properties, two in Kybybolite and one in Naracoorte, were auctioned by a local real estate company.

Sarah Herrmann. Yorke and Northern Local Health Network has announced its new Rural Doctors Program, which offers medical graduates three-to-five-year training contracts in the region, with the aim to empower junior doctors to became rural generalists. YNLHN executive director of medical services Hendrika Meyer said the network is making a long-term investment to grow its medical workforce by allowing junior doctors to train in the country earlier in their careers and to complete their entire training in the region.