Eye Clinics Forced To Look At The Options
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 23, 1996
Eye services in Sydney are to be changed significantly due to cuts in the South Eastern Area health budget.
The proposals are to retain either the Sydney Eye Hospital or the Prince of Wales ophthalmology department; to combine the two in some fashion; or to move one out of the area, preferably to Liverpool.
The Prince of Wales eye clinic, for more than 30 years dominated by the presence of Professor Fred Hollows, was yesterday fighting for its future. Already faxes have been coming in from its outreach programs into rural and remote areas, with Bourke providing 500 signatures demanding the unit be saved.
The head of the ophthalmology department, Professor Minas Coroneo, said the department would give him no assurance about the unit's future. "There is a lot of strength in having a major eye unit within a teaching hospital, with all the other surrounding units. That is something that we value. It is a model that I believe is best for the people of this State."
The fight for resources within the South Eastern Area health service intensified yesterday, with the head of St George Hospital's orthopedic unit, Professor George Murrell, having a QC briefed to fight a health department proposal to scuttle the hospital's fledgling Orthopedic Research Institute.
"He came on the understanding he would be able to develop a world class orthopedic department and major research facility (into arthritis). The Department of Health clearly indicated this would be funded, and they have now withdrawn that funding," commented the former director of surgery at St George, Dr Dennis King.
Professor Murrell said the department had already spent $400,000 on equipment, and $1.2 million to buy the Kogarah Private Hospital, but the investment was sitting idle because it now refused to fund the remaining $400,000 fit-out.
The Minister for Health, Dr Refshauge, rejected Professor Murrell's claim that the cuts planned for orthopedics would turn St George into a cottage industry.
For the department, Dr Stuart Spring said St George had overspent its budget by $3 million last year, and had been asked to make savings of $2 million this year. He would not comment on whether the department was going to scuttle the institute.
"A range of organisations are believing if they don't fight the options, they will become the options," he said.
Yet another setback came with the Australian Medical Association calling for an independent, public inquiry into the NSW health system, and withdrawing from a committee set up to examine the changes.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald
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