Health expectations.

The news that the Federal government has stepped in to prevent the Mersey hospital at Devonport in Tasmania from being downgraded to an entity run by general practitioners raises the question of health expectations in this country.
Tasmania has a small population by Australian standards. Just over 447,000 people call it home. Devonport has a population of 22,300 - and situated sixty kilometres away - Burnie has 19,134 people.
The suggestion was that Devonport's Mersey hospital operate as a GP's clinic, while hospital services be concentrated at Burnie hospital. Naturally, the people at Devonport were enraged. Having been used to having a functioning hospital in their town this was seen as debasing their standing as citizens.
So - what is the norm when it comes to providing medical services ?
Sixty kilometres to access a hospital would be a blessing to many parts of this continent. In some places a drive of a thousand miles would be nearer the point for some remote communities.
In the case of Tasmania there are two big centres of population - the capital, Hobart with 126,000 people and Launceston with 68,000. Both have fully functioning general hospitals that provide the full range of services and tend to draw specialist service patients from surrounding areas of the state.
Now would be a good time for a review of medical service provision in all areas of this country. Country towns need at least a medical centre providing basic services which should include theatre and emergency departments, but it is not practical to have a fully serviced base hospital in every village and town.
Perhaps the missing link is the provision of an adequate transport service to get patients to where top of the line hospitals are located. At present, apart from accident cases transported by ambulance - patients have to find their own way when an operation or other treatment is required. That seems to be the main sticking point - apart from the time factor of getting swift treatment in an emergency.
Rather than a band aid solution by way of retaining rather than consolidating hospitals the money would be better spent devising a transport service that would feed patients swiftly and economically to where they can be treated to the full range of services.
It would be a matter of logistics taking preference over politics !