AUGUST 7, 2018 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + PROPERTY GUIDE
Ballan health crisis By Sumeyya Ilanbey Health services at the Ballan GP superclinic are likely to be cut and jobs lost unless the state government steps in and increases funding, according to one board member. Ballan District Health and Care has been grappling with financial difficulties for at least the past four years. Preliminary figures indicate the clinic operated at a $480,000 loss in the 2017-18 financial year, which is projected to increase to $800,000 this financial year if changes aren’t made. Board member and Moorabool mayor Paul Tatchell wants the state government to step in. He alluded to service cuts and job losses unless the clinic could be turned around. Although a private facility, the BDHC is community-run and the major health service provider for Ballan. It employs 183 staff, and offers aged-care, hospital care, X-ray and dental, among a number of other services. Chief executive Wayne Weaire resigned last week. In a letter to staff in June, he gave reassurances the clinic was meeting its financial obligation, but conceded it was facing the challenges of increasing demand and costs. Mr Tatchell said BDHC had experienced “exponential growth” over the past five years, finding itself under “enormous growing pains”. “We don’t have a funding bucket like other health organisations,” Mr Tatchell said. “So we need to get those government partners back to the table, because it’s one thing to call us a private hospital but we do a public job. So I think there’s … a play on words. “Unless the state government are prepared to get involved in the funding of it, as a board we need to take responsibility financially and say, ‘We know you want the Rolls Royce, but we can only afford to run the Holden’.” The board will meet the health department soon and discuss ways to make the clinic more viable. BDHC board president Lyn Gunnel said: “Now more than ever, we are working with government and other health services to determine how and when we can transition BDHC from a position of financial strain to financial growth. “The whole Ballan community, and our incredibly hard-working team, depend on BDHC to continue to be a vital healthcare provider in the western corridor of Victoria.” Health Minister Jill Hennessy’s spokesman said the state government was “watching the situation closely”. Mr Weaire was contacted for comment.
Bewitched by short films
Organiser Steve Pereira is ready to roll the movies. (Dennis Manktelow)
Filmmakers will embrace their inner ghouls at Sunshine Short Film Festival’s most spooktacular edition yet. This year’s festival, with a theme of “CarnEvil”, will run on Halloween (October 31) and entrants are being urged to turn to the strange and unusual as the focus of their five-minute films. For festival organiser Steve Pereira, the change of pace from last year’s “Beautiful Sunshine” theme is a reflection of how the festival has grown. “We first started this festival as a way of celebrating local culture … but as we’ve grown we’ve got more recognition and we can look a bit more broadly,” he said. “Horror has always been one of the most popular themes in past years, but it’s also about the carnival, the circus and the oddities of human existence … we want to say, let’s bring them out and enjoy the fact that we’ve got so many different, odd, and eccentric people.” As with previous years, there will be three age group categories – primary school, secondary school and open. The winner of each category will take home $1000, while the judges’ award for the best film overall will win $3000. “Entries can be anything from 30 seconds to five minutes, so it’s very achievable and we have a wide variety of films each year,” Pereira said. “What this festival also does is feature people from a wide variety of ethnicities, who don’t see themselves on the big screen or they are in very prescribed roles. “We get to be our heroes here, and tell our stories the way we want to tell them.” Details: sunshinefilmfestival.com.au Ewen McRae
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