ANF (Vic Branch) is Victoria’s peak nursing industrial and professional body representing more than 48,000 members
540 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne phone 03 9275 9333 fax 03 9275 9344 email rasbury@anfvic.asn.au www.anfvic.asn.au
Media inquiries: ANF Media Officer Robyn Asbury 03 9275 9333 or 0417 523 252
Media Release
Attention: news, health,
aged care, politics
Monday 23 November 2009
Nurses to support city rally to save Sea Lake Hospital
The Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) has called on the Federal and Victorian Governments to find a
funding solution to save the Sea Lake Hospital before another vital rural health service disappears.
ANF (Victorian Branch) Acting Secretary Yvonne Chaperon will speak at the Sea Lake and Districts Health Service
Action Group’s community rally to save the hospital on the steps of Parliament House in Spring Street tomorrow at 12
noon.
Hundreds of Sea Lake residents are expected to attend the rally to hear speakers including Sea Lake and Districts
Health Service Action Group’s Keva Lloyd, the hospital board chairperson Laurice McClelland, Greens MP Colleen
Hartland and local primary school students.
The Sea Lake and District Health Service board announced this month that the not-for-profit bush nursing hospital and
aged care facility would close before Christmas due to a funding crisis. The closure will mean nursing home residents
must find new accommodation and people requiring health services will have to drive more than an hour to Swan Hill,
Ouyen or Mildura.
Ms Chaperon said: “Sea Lake residents already have a hospital, highly skilled nursing staff, a local general
practitioner who is also a respected mentor for young rural GPs, a medical practice and low and high aged care
services. There is a lot at stake for this community and the Victorian Government must not let another rural health
service disappear.
“Only four years ago the Bracks Government contributed $140,000 to the funding of a new commercial kitchen and
fire safety works at Sea Lake Hospital because bush nursing hospitals ‘play a key role in caring for people in rural
communities’,” Ms Chaperon said.
“We urge Health Minister Daniel Andrews to look at every option on the table to keep this facility in Sea Lake including
merging the service with the Mallee Track Health and Community Service,” she said.
“Bush nursing hospitals have played an integral role in rural Victoria and there are recent examples where they have
been successfully amalgamated with larger regional health services, such as Rainbow Bush Nursing Hospital and
Natimuk Bush Nursing Hospital which are now under the West Wimmera Health Service umbrella. The viability of this
in the case of Sea Lake must be examined urgently,” Ms Chaperon said.
Media contact
Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Assistant Secretary Yvonne Chaperon on 0439 617 408
Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Media Officer Robyn Asbury 0417 523 252
NEWS 
