Letters and short takes February 15 2023

RACFs were never designed or staffed to care for the range of medical issues with which they now have to deal. The traditional client group for RACFs were people needing high level nursing care and people with dementia without major behavioural issues.

Government closure of long-stay hospitals has meant that RACFs have to manage older people with mental illness, intellectual disability, dementia and a range of challenging behaviours, younger people with brain injury, and people with delirium.

This range of problems cannot be managed within the one environment with a single staffing mix. Many facilities are poorly designed to manage dementia while staff are poorly paid and inadequately trained.

There are too few GPs available to provide primary medical care and many of the patients with complex problems are difficult.

As a geriatrician, I think the entire industry needs to be rethought. Facilities should be specially designed to look after particular target populations, adequately funded to employ appropriate staff with nurse specialists in areas like dementia, mental illness, intellectual disability and end of life care.

Nurse practitioners are required to supplement GPs. Greater support should be provided by the local health districts. Health care is a system. If one part is neglected, the whole system will collapse.

AFTER the stories of abuse and neglect were revealed by the Royal Commission into Aged Care I thought I was immune to the heartbreak that greeted me on Saturday ("Home Horror", Newcastle Herald 11/2). My stomach turned and tears came to my eyes as I read this report of the abuse and neglect accurately described by the report of the Aged Care Quality And Safety Commission in one regional care home.

Whilst we punished the Morrison government at the last election for their refusal to act on the royal commission report, most of us were encouraged by the promises of the Albanese government to carry out the recommendations of reform as set out by the commission. Sadly, in the meantime since the commission's report, there have almost certainly been many further new cases of abuse and neglect. Thousands too have died I believe as a result of us "living with COVID".

As a 93-year-old getting ever closer to needing care and a 65-year member of the ALP, I plead with local members of parliament to make urgent representation to the ministers in charge of the reform of aged care to ensure the large number of care homes that are closing are funded in a way that the aged can look forward to living out their last days with dignity and without the pain and neglect as listed in Gabriel Fowler's story from Saturday's edition.

As mentioned in the report, several care homes have closed. I understand many others have closed particularly in the rural and regional areas. With the number of aged expected to increase by over 2 million by 2050, the reform and funding of the aged care industry cannot be ignored.

The suffering of my fellow aged as reported is in my opinion a crime that we are all guilty of, as the royal commission made clear to stop the neglect we voters must make our government act with compassion.

The Hunter and Port Stephens area is rapidly developing into one of Australia's biggest God's waiting rooms, so the problems of our care cannot be ignored.

AT the start of the festive season Transport for NSW applied to subdivide the 48-acre, historically important Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot. No indication was given as to what was planned for the site, but we saw it as another important part of our heritage going under the hammer.

We and some 60 others objected, and City of Newcastle has recommended the subdivision application be withdrawn. Our petition has grown to some 480-plus signatures and further support has come from the Hunter Branch and the Industrial Heritage Committee of the National Trust. We are grateful also to Tim Crakanthorp MP for raising questions in Parliament about this site.

Intact, this site could become the Hunter Community Park; an industrial heritage centre; an outpost for the Newcastle Museum; an interactive sustainability centre and a major tourist attraction. The coal loader in North Sydney is a shining example of industrial heritage that has become a wonderful public amenity and major tourist attraction on the North Shore. It is important that the Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot heritage site, so instrumental in the industrial and economic development of NSW, is preserved for future generations.

A LETTER like William Hardes' ("Where do we stand?" Letters, 13/2), could almost make one weep at the sheer injustice of being a white middle-aged heterosexual male. The writer wants us to know how unfair life is for him and others of his ilk and how he is thought of as being a pig, a misogynist and a chauvinist and is convinced women no longer like members of the male species.

The problem is not what the letter says but what it omits: that up until fairly recently women were treated as chattel. There is no mention of the terror of women and children rough-handled by men in high rates of domestic violence, or those murdered far too frequently. And what about the legal system's shortcomings when it comes to rape and sexual assault trials? Variations in rates of pay and conditions between men and women, or the vicious trolling that women in top jobs are subjected to just because they are women? Women are sick to death of wars, and they certainly don't want one started by men between the sexes. Most people, women included, only want to be treated fairly and with respect.

MY husband and I have just returned from East Maitland Library where we found complete and utter mayhem. We felt as though we had walked into the middle of a noisy play school.

I understand that home-schoolers are now allowed to run riot there. The poor librarians were about ready to tear their hair out.

Children were running freely around the bookshelves, squealing and screaming and totally out of control. We were prevented from even thinking about choosing books.

I believe it is a complete disgrace and totally unacceptable. It will also eventuate in the library losing their valued local readers. Anyone in there today could see this happening. I would also like to know how students coming to study are now expected to study in peace, not to mention older groups who come in for a quiet time.

I realise that libraries are now open to everyone in the community, as they should be, but this is on another level altogether.

WELL, there is no doubt free enterprise is firing on all cylinders when it comes to the price of petrol. On Sunday I found E10 at Coles Glendale 209.9 cents, and then Coles at Tuggerah had 169.9 cents per litre on offer. 40 cents a litre difference is a huge variation in areas only about 60km apart.

BRIAN Measday repeats an error corrected by Tanya Plibersek when questioned in a recent TV press conference, (Short Takes, 13/2). The error is that the proposed mine is 10 kilometres from the coastline, and not from the Great Barrier Reef, which is a fair way off the coastline.

I USED to enjoy reading the Letters to the Editor section, but these days I find myself scrolling through to find something fresh and worth saying. The same old topics of climate change, 'woke' and others have been done to death and it seems the same few enjoy having ongoing arguments with each other. I find these tiresome to and fros of interest only to the participating few. Can we have some interesting and worthwhile topics please? Letters used to be limited to 250 words but some of these tirades just go on and on. Please be more discerning with which letters are published.

WITH China ramping up its aggression toward the West, deep down I hope the U.S. come out and say these things they are shooting down are their own super secret military devices their own National Defence wasn't aware of. The devices utilise alien technology and the West has the technological capability to destroy any aggressor. But sadly reality is never that interesting and I realise I've watched too much sci-fi.

IN reply to Michael MacQuarrie, (Short Takes, 11/2). I never realised living in Merewether had its disadvantages but it did give me a good laugh.

OH look, Sydney FC won again. Oh look, the opposition got a red card and had a goal disallowed. Oh look, I've seen this before.

WELL said William Hardes, ("Where do we stand?" Letters, 13/2), I totally agree.

WHY is William Hardes so scared that middle aged white males might be becoming a minority? It's as if he thinks minorities have been notoriously treated badly or something.

CHAIRMAN of selectors Steve Barnett for both the West and Villain teams, (Short Takes, 13/2), has swerved too far to the left, neglecting a balance that could be provided; Mother Teresa and Golda Meir.