Country health task force flags key finding
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Country hospital plan task force flags key finding (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)
A task force investigating the South Australian Government's country health plan says its final report will recommend that smaller country hospitals keep their staff and services.
The task force has asked for a week's extension as it considers thousands of community submissions.
SA Health Minister John Hill says upgrades to major country hospitals, at Whyalla, Port Lincoln, Berri and Mount Gambier, will start immediately.
But he says the rest of the plan will wait on the task force's findings.
Task force chairman Peter Blacker says all local hospitals will be encouraged to develop 10-year plans on maintaining their workforce and services.
"Our report will certainly be accepting the good parts of the old plan, if you want to put it that way, and making recommendations of how to proceed forward from there, in particular in relation to the 43 to 45 hospitals that were in the smaller category," he said.
Mr Blacker says submissions have made clear that the smaller hospitals and their acute care services are important priorities.
He says task force members will met the Government next Friday ahead of a revised country health plan being released.
"I did that quite deliberately because we would much prefer to have an accurate report go to the Minister rather than a half-baked one, and it became almost impossible for us to provide a report by the end of August," he said.
