Health boss denies claims aged-care residents to be forced out of North Midlands Hospital

The WA Country Health Service has denied claims it will be moving aged care residents from Three Springs to Morawa, despite community concerns staffing shortages will force local patients to receive care outside of home. Three Springs Shire president Chris Lane claimed from February 9, aged-care residents will be transferred to Morawa hospital, along with several Three Springs hospital staff. But WACHS regional director Midwest Rachele Ferrari said there was no plan in place to do this. “We are not moving any of the aged care residents and don’t have any directions to do so,” she said. “While we have met with the staff to discuss scenarios based on different circumstances, there is nothing confirmed and if we have any changes, we will absolutely let the community know as a priority.” Member for Moore Shane Love Love said he had put in a request for information from Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, but had received no response at time of writing. “At a time when we’ve got COVID in the community, people are concerned about the level of healthcare they’re getting,” Mr Love said. The Member for Moore was joined by shadow minister for regional health Martin Aldridge on a visit to Three Springs on Tuesday morning to meet with Ms Lane and the Shire council, as well as to hear the concerns of local residents. “It’s very worrying, because we’ve seen before that something said to be temporary often becomes permanent,” Mr Love said. Ms Lane said the hospital has had staffing shortages for several years which have only been made worse by border closures. “If nothing changes it’ll only get worse,” she said. “The flow-on effect from this is that our St John volunteer ambulance service is already very thin on the ground. If we have to rely on our volunteers to service Morawa hospital as well as Three Springs, they will be stretched to breaking point.”