Speak out
In reference to the report from hospital chief executive officer Rohan Fitzgerald in the Stawell Times News (31-1-2012) we would make these comments.
We believe that it is disingenuous and a spin on the subject which will be answered in more detail at the meeting on February 10.
The Dr Obi support group has tried since July last year to bring a peaceful and constructive solution to the dispute by urging conciliation and external mediation.
We wanted to see a result that would work to satisfy the health concerns of a very significant proportion of the Stawell and surrounding communities, after all some 2000 people signed a petition.
We had asked the hospital to show leadership and work to achieve harmony between all sections of the medical and associated professions in the town, in the interests of the community.
Apart from a brief meeting between Ross Hatton and Rohan Fitzgerald for the hospital, and Shirley Gerritsen and the undersigned that took place on October 10 at the hospital, the petitioners have been totally ignored.
On December 9, Dr Obi was fully acquitted on all charges against him. There was never any rape or any other crime!!!
Finally we hoped that the hospital would see as an opportunity to heal the wounds between itself and the community and show the leadership we sought.
But no! On January 27 an article appeared in the Herald-Sun following a 'tip off' as I was told by Ms Carly Crawford, the Herald Sun Senior Investigative Journalist who wrote the article.
Ms Crawford informed me that she had fully researched the matter including accessing the court records, speaking to 12 people in Stawell and reading the letters in the Stawell Times News. Naturally using journalists code she would not divulge her sources. But it seems strange that she never spoke to such people as Dr Norm Castle who has been very closely involved in the matter, other town leaders such as the Stawell councillors and former board member Kaye Harris, or many other prominent citizens who have serious concerns on the issues involved. Yes, she did ring Dr Obi, who on the advice of his lawyers advised that he was unable to comment at this stage.
So all the information arose from Ms Crawford's conversations with these 12 citizens, oh and of course the court records. But we expect to have more to say about all of this at the public meeting on February 10.
Dr Obi for the past year under the stress of the calumny and rumours, has continued to do the great job he does as a doctor and kept out of the public debate.
We have been genuinely concerned about the long term ramifications of the ongoing dispute on the hospital and its staff and the relations between the hospital and the community unless it could be resolved peacefully.
This dispute has put off-side many hospital donors, and others who have a long time, often direct involvement in some capacity with the hospital and hospital related institutions.
Further this dispute will make it difficult to attract to and hold doctors in the town, if recent events are any guide. Except of course the good news that Dr Rasheed will be joining Dr Obi in March.
In our January 21 letter we appealed to the CEO and the Board to seriously look again and with a less myopic view, because of the intense public interest and because the public regard the hospital as 'their hospital' and so many want 'their doctor' to be involved in hospital visits to visit them or their loved ones.
They want the affected parties to sit down, to work through the issues that still remain. There is no personnel issue or conflict that cannot be resolved if there is genuine goodwill. The hospital management and Board have not shown any!
We had noted that the CEO Mr Fitzgerald who had been a Latrobe City Councillor until he resigned in April 2011 to take up his position in Stawell, had proffered advice to his former Council colleagues (Latrobe Valley Express, 21-4-2011), in a situation when he left a community, in which there was mistrust and division between the institution of local government and the community of Latrobe, where public rallies were occurring over multiple issues of strong disagreement and controversy.
Mr Fitzgerald said "It's time to heal", and he urged the councillors to show leadership.
As we suggested to Mr Fitzgerald and his Board at the hospital, they were wise words then, and they are wise words now and if acted upon, could have peacefully solved the bitter dispute in Stawell.
In the same letter we had proposed that if the reconciliation process could begin, if negotiations could commence, then we could collectively go to the public meeting on February 10 and tell the people that the powers to be in town, Hospital, Council, Medical Clinics, Community and Allied Health are committed together to resolve problems, to find a better way forward, to heal the divisions. I believe the public would accept.
To aid this process Mr John Forrest MHR Member for Mallee has told me that he would be happy to work as a conciliator with the parties.
Our answer was provided, first in the Herald Sun article last Friday and (by coincidence?) the Stawell Times News on this Tuesday past. It is up the community who feel aggrieved by this situation to make their views felt at the public meeting on February 10.
John Launder
On behalf of the Dr Obi Support Group
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