Uniting Church abandons treatment of sick and disabled in Wesley Hospital redevelopment

Hundreds of private hospital outpatients undergoing rehabilitation and treatment for chronic diseases at The Wesley Hospital have been told to find alternatives after Uniting Healthcare announced last week it was closing the current hydrotherapy facility in July to make way for a $95 million redevelopment.

The Wesley Hydrotherapy faculty is currently being used by over 500 patients a week.

Wesley Hospital CEO Gerry Wyvill told angry, and sometimes tearful patients, at a public meeting last Monday called to discuss the redevelopment, that doctors at the hospital supported the closure of the hydrotherapy facility.

The new $95 million development is currently before the Brisbane City Council and the hydrotherapy facility could be closed from July.

Mr Wyvill told patients they could access the Wesley Mission complex at Seventeen Mile Rocks, or public facilities at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Patients at the meeting disputed the capacity of these facilities to adequately meet their needs.

The new redevelopment at Wesley will increase the number of single private rooms in the hospital from the current 36% to approximately 70%, a net increase of 73 beds. This is a cost of $1.3 million per new bed. A replacement hydrotherapy pool can be built for $4 million – the cost of three beds.

Mr Wywill told the meeting that the decision to close the hydrotherapy facility was made in October last year. Mr Wyvill was unable to say why that decision had not been communicated to patients at that time.

One speaker at the meeting, who declined to be named, said: “This not a clinically rational decision. It’s clearly a decision based on money, and it flies directly in the face of the Uniting Church’s claim to care for the vulnerable and the weak”.

The issue is shaping up as a public relations disaster for the Uniting Church, which several years ago closed the mental health ward at Wesley Hospital, and is currently before the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal for alleged discrimination against a patient.


For more information:
CONTACT: savethewesleypool@hotmail.com
http://www.blognow.com.au/SaveWesleyHydro/