The Bay Post/Moruya Examiner sought comment from Surf Beach GP James Langley, after Doctors Andrew Gibson and David Rivett spoke out about the lack of a CAT scanner on Monday, March 5. 

He said CAT scanners were a fundamental part of how medicine was practised today.

“Stroke, car accidents, trauma and abdominal pain – any of these problems routinely use a CT scanner,” Dr Langley said.

“If you had a stroke in Moruya, you would be taken to hospital, then, if the doctor thought you looked okay, you would be given a CT scan, the doctor would ring Canberra to discuss the findings, and you may be transported by helicopter.

“If you have a stroke in Batemans Bay, there’s no CT scan and the doctor has to decide whether to send you straight to Canberra or to Moruya – you’ve lost at least an hour of time to play with.

“If I was going to have a stroke, I would hope I had it in Moruya and not Batemans Bay.

“There’s an inequality in access.”

However, Dr Langley said the Eurobodalla needed to think bigger if it wanted to care for its growing – and ageing – population.

“The CT scanner would be an interim measure, but long-term, the big picture is a larger base or regional hospital for the Eurobodalla,” he said.

“I think most VMOs would agree – but there does need to be a lot of discussion about where it would be located.

“I don’t think two small regional hospitals adequately equip us for an increasing and ageing population.”

Dr Langley said he knew the idea was controversial, but with some creative thinking, it would work for residents up and down the shire.

“Both communities were opposed to a single hospital in 2001, but medicine has changed,” he said.

“When someone had a heart attack you used to put them in hospital, give them some morphine and keep an eye on them – now we fly people to Canberra for emergency heart surgery.

“In Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra people don’t think twice about driving half an hour to get to a well-equipped hospital.”

Dr Langley acknowledged getting to and from hospital in a regional area was a problem in itself – but one that could be solved with some creative thinking.

“Public transport makes a huge difference, and it is inadequate in the Eurobodalla,” he said. 

“A taxi service would be a trivial expense, in comparison with the running of the whole hospital.”

Dr Langley’s dream is for the state government to seriously invest in quality care.

“It would be nice for the state government to spend some money now, when there is a bit of extra money in the system, on a new base hospital in the Eurobodalla,” he said.

On his wish list are “a mini ICU, more specialists and better management of road trauma”.

“Part of the cost of living in a rural area is you can’t expect tertiary hospital care immediately,” he said.

“We need both communities to be onside, and understand that the world has changed, and the way we practise medicine has changed.”

What do you think? The health service wants to know what Eurobodalla residents want in the next decade – head to their online survey. 

Email your thoughts to: zoe.cartwright@fairfaxmedia.com.au