The Yass Valley Clinical Services Review Steering Committee is on target to deliver its draft recommendations into the future plan for local health services in March.
Southern NSW Local Health District director of medical services Dr John Gallichio is currently conducting meetings with local doctors to add input into the clinical review process.
He met with Dr Ray Burn in Yass on Monday.
Issues that were discussed at the meeting included succession planning for retiring doctors and the recruitment and retention of future doctors; the exorbitant fees required to re-train nurses returning to the workforce after a significant absence; improving transport to larger centres in Goulburn and Canberra for emergency and routine appointments, particularly for the elderly; the absence of a locally-based speech pathologist; and daycare and palliative care services, among other issues.
Dr Gallichio also confirmed Yass Hospital would continue to be fully staffed with a visiting medical officer beyond the April guarantee which was reported in the Tribune last December.
"We're working actively to ensure the service continues beyond then. The roster is there and ready to be published," he said at the meeting.
The department was confident of full coverage throughout 2012, saying gaps had occurred last year because of unforseen events which rendered the doctor rostered on unable to work and a replacement unavailable also.
The committee is a blend of representatives from Yass Valley Council, the community, the Southern NSW Local Health District, ACT Health and local hospital staff.
Members include Tania Duffy, Mary Smeaton, Cecilia Pavlovic, Andrew Gow, Zoe Harris, Jacki Kuiters, Liz Darmody, Judith Williams, Jasmin Jones, Rob Bampton, Phillip Davies, John Gallichio, Geoff Frost and Max Alexander.
Member Judith Williams said the committee had worked constructively on a lot of issues but there were still some issues to discuss further. She was very hopeful of achieving an outcome which would benefit the whole community.
A spokesman for SNSWLHD chief Max Alexander said the January committee meeting covered the development of some draft recommendations but it was unanimously agreed to allow another month to make more specific recommendations on some issues.
"We're looking at very specific models of care that could work in Yass," spokesperson Michael Collins said.
A lot of recommendations were based on accessing cross-border services, and all would include indicative costing.
They expected to publish the draft recommendations at the March meeting to allow a month of public consultation, adopting a final plan in April and then they would disband the committee.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Yass Tribune.
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