Save La Trobe Private Hospital

This is a petition to appeal to La Trobe University to reconsider their descision to close La Trobe Private Hospital as a surgical hospital.

La Trobe is a community hospital that provides surgical expertise in orthopaedic, ophthalmology, gynaecological, general surgery, urology, plastics, endoscopy, ENT, colorectal, and orthodontic.

The financial state of Healthecare (the company that we are currently held by) is not dire and still operating throughout Victoria and Australia.

This company has decided to break it’s contract and has decided to make all positions at this site redundant so as to sell the contract to another hospital chain who will in due course create a Psychiatric Hospital.

The other hospital chain (Healthscope) have put forward a large sum of money to the University (who own the building) to secure the site without a complete plan for 2014.

Until the past week, St Vincent’s Private were also in the competitive process of bidding for the contract for La Trobe Private Hospital to continue running the reputable Surgical Hospital we love and would have enabled most of the current staff to remain employed.

Unfortunately, because of the large sum of money demanded by the university, (which is government owned) Healthscope won the bidding with no regard to the loss of employment and the loss of much needed surgical beds in the community.

I would like to highlight to you the loss of approximately 150 jobs for local workers in the Bundoora area and surrounds due to this closure.

Also to stress the question of what happens to the 500 surgeries a month performed and 10 Transitional Care Beds leased by the Northern Hospital? Warringal; although another reputable and great Private Hospital is at maximum capacity and North Park have neither the resources nor the room to accompany our magnificent surgeons.

A pharmacist will go bankrupt due to mortgaging his own house to buy his business just a short time ago. This hospital is an asset to the community and it is critical to the community that something is done to rectify the situation immediately.

We are appealing to you to give us a voice in the community and stand by our lovely hospital. It is right and it is just that we be given a chance to reach our full potential and continue as the wonderful hospital we are.