Under the proposal Stawell Regional Health would come together with Ballarat Health Services, Wimmera Health Care Group and Edenhope and District Memorial Hospital to form a new health service under a new health board.

This comes after an extensive public consultation period from Stawell Regional Health and the Wimmera Health Care Group about the proposal.

Stawell Regional Health board chair Rhian Jones said the process had taken about 18 months to arrive at the outcome.

"It's been a lot of work - everyone has worked above and beyond," she said.

"From the community consultation, breaking down what the community envisioned their future in healthcare would look like, the best plan forward to fulfil the community demand was with the amalgamation.

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"We will be releasing the results from the community consultation - I would really like the community to hear what was said during that time.

"People's concerns were around amalgamations and the bad experiences they had had with them in the past.

"There has been challenging spaces in the past. The word amalgamation we didn't like using because it sounds like Stawell will just be absorbed by someone else.

"But what we were trying to do is set up a completely new entity so all four services work together to the best of their capacity."

Mrs Jones said she believed the new entity would help alleviate pressure for health services in Ballarat and increase the service in Stawell.

"It's a win-win," she said.

"When we went into it, we figured there was nothing we could lose. We were the fourth health service to get on board so it's not like we jumped into it.

"We could have formalised a partnership, that was one of the options. We explored that pretty heavily because we really were 50-50 on what we should do.

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"We couldn't stay the same as what we had been. Something had to change so we knew it was either a formalised partnership or a new entity.

"When we explored the formalised partnership we realised it didn't have the strength to carry that through, especially when the other three organisations decided to join together.

"When formalising a partnership we took it that we would be the end of the chain - to stick us on at the end and think we'll look after us first then Stawell later - we knew that wasn't the best way forward for our community and not what we wanted for the future."

Mrs Jones said she was surprised and thankful towards the people who participated in the community consultation and spoke to her during that period.

"They were so open and honest," she said. "Once people understood how there could be an option for more services and better opportunities for health care in Stawell everyone was really open to the idea.

"'Whatever it takes and if it going to make our health service better, we'll trust you to do it' was the main message we, as a board, started to receive.

"I was really heartened by that. I did expect the community to come out and say we hate the idea immediately but I loved that they actually wanted to learn and listen and understand.

"It was confronting - I was prepared to go out and listen to things I didn't really want to hear. I was willing to take us back to previous times when the hospital received negative backlash."

Since the announcement which took place on Friday, July 9, Mrs Jones said the feedback received had been positive.

Mrs Jones was holidaying in the middle of South Australia with family during the week-long talks and negotiations before the final announcement on Friday.

Trying to find service at key times while in the Flinders Ranges was difficult for Mrs Jones, who thanked her family immensely for accommodating her needs and ensuring she could fulfil her role.

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"We, as a board, had decided on Monday night which direction we would be going and I was really emotional," she said.

"I had held the whole thing so close to my chest. It was a unanimous decision - I think that's a really positive thing for the community.

"It was assessed on the fact the information we had on hand we all agreed it was the best foot forward.

"We've secured the future in a really positive and constructive way to do health care in this region. It's exciting."

Mrs Jones said she was excited about the future and reflects on a time, back in 2019, when she really knew it was time for changes to occur for the benefit of Stawell residents and their healthcare.

"We pulled data and a statistic that really shocked me was 60 per cent of surgeries done at the Stawell Regional Health theatre were from people from out of town," she said.

"I said at the time what is a local health service for if we are doing that.

"Now, if the proposal goes through, the surgeons that come to Stawell can't bring their own list with them anymore. They bring their skill and we give them their work.

"We're looking after locals, finally. It's so exciting for us."

Mrs Jones said while there was a long term transition projected for the proposal she hoped the Stawell community would start seeing some benefits straight away.

"We're hoping fewer people will have to travel, fewer people finding accommodation and people can do more from home," she said.

"We will be increasing oncology services looking at surgeries, the amazing SAROS service which is provided and 24-hour care in our urgent care centre and medical governance.

"Medical governance won't mean a lot to the community but what it means is quality and safety of care which is absolutely vital. We've managed these past few years by bringing in expensive consultants but now we'll have somebody that's actually ours, we can call on at any time and rely on their expertise and their ability to navigate all that back of house stuff that's absolutely vital."

Throughout the community consultation period, Mrs Jones said Stawell residents were worried people would lose jobs.

"Every section of the health service will need their person do to their job on-site," she said.

"What will be centralised will be things such as the creation of a new domestic violence framework - each health service is doing that on their own.

"It's a massive piece of work, vital. But it's ridiculous that all four of us would be doing it on our own. That's where those savings will come in.

"I don't want people to think that people will lose their jobs - it's not what this is about. It's about consolidating the big jobs.

"Each individual health service will have a brand new service plan for it. We've been busting to do it for the past three to four years.

"Our service plan will refresh everything and make sure we're utilising the entire service and it will be a much better flow - much better ease of access.

"So many exciting things have come out of this and should happen pretty quickly."

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