The many opinions on the proposed merger

THE Alexandra District Health (ADH) and Eastern Health (EH) exploration of a voluntary merger was announced on Thursday, November 6, with an engagement period of just 15 days, finishing on November 21. It was an unreasonably short period of time for the community to understand, digest and develop an informed opinion on the proposal.

Member for Eildon Cindy McLeish commented, “When I received the call from Eastern Health, I was expecting they were going to tell me that they had dialysis up and running [at ADH] and I was not expecting that they were going to raise the issue of amalgamation.”

On the day of the announcement, a survey was presented to the community by ADH. It was a tick-a-box for whether the community liked having different health services available at ADH, which of course we do, but there was nothing seeking opinions about the proposed merger.

There was only a free-text box at the end of the survey, limited to 200 words, where people could write their thoughts. The word count was later expanded as a result of complaints.

In the following days, Murrindindi Shire Council also put out a survey on the subject of the merger exploration, asking more questions about the proposed merger.

On the ADH Facebook page, comments were switched off on all of the posts relating to the merger, so it’s easy to wonder whether they were keen on community feedback at all.

Early in the engagement period, there was a flurry of meetings, with more meetings added during the engagement period due to complaints about the timing and lack of notice. To give credit where it’s due, Alexandra District Health CEO Jane Poxon, Eastern Health CEO David Plunkett and board member Alan Studley appeared at most, if not all, of the meetings.

During the meetings, there were questions from the audience and responses from the stage. It felt like a sales game rather than a collaboration to solve a problem, allowing the public to…

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