The Mount Gambier Hospital is looking at expanding a range of services in the coming year, with a focus on cancer treatment and mental health support.

The announcements were made at the Limestone Coast Local Health Network’s (LCLHN) two public health meetings held last week.

Attendees heard from the LCLHN governing board and key staff, who discussed achievements over the past 12 months and plans going forward.

LCLHN Board Chair Grant King acknowledged the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic had presented at the Mount Gambier Hospital.

“This year in particular, COVID continues with us, we know that we have managed COVID as well as we possibly could out here,” he said.

“But COVID has taken its toll, it has been really difficult for the workforce, the staff and the people who continue to front-up and deliver services.

“It has really been challenging, so we can understand why there is some burnout and some fatigue around people who are having to better their services in an ongoing situation.”

Mr King said the Mount Gambier Private Hospital transitioned into the public system just over 12 months ago.

“We needed to support the board of the private hospital who were concerned about how they would manage going forward by transitioning into the public system,” he said.

LCLHN chief executive Ngaire Buchanan said despite COVID they had undertaken significant work to ensure they could provide the community with services they required.

“People have really come to the fore to make sure they can manage whatever situation comes,” Ms Buchanan said.

“What I like to say is that our leadership and our people that we have got here are actually ready for anything that comes across the door, so that is really pleasing.”

Ms Buchanan said many of their strategic priorities were focused on bringing care closer to home.

She said several local services were introduced or increased over the last 18 months, including the addition of a haematology clinic and the cancer service for chemotherapy had been increased by 80%.

Ms Buchanan said the hospital had secured a second oncologist and they had been looking at bringing more urology and believed there were enough numbers to consider a business case for this.

“Also respiratory medicine… we have got an expert in respiratory medicine as part of our general physician service for medicine, so we are looking at how we can actually expand there,” she said.

Ms Buchanan said they had gone to the Commonwealth to put a business case forward to increase the local cancer service.

“We have got the money from the federal government to be able to provide extra services in our current chemotherapy suite, to expand there to be able to have more consults there,” she said.

Ms Buchanan said they were looking at increasing this so it was more than just the clinical care, but also a holistic approach to cancer therapy and to ensure they could provide an uplifting environment for cancer patients.

Mr King said challenges going forward included workforce, housing, managing demand of services and infrastructure.

“Demand on our services, particularly for the ED, is enormous, it is growing at a significant rate,” he said.

“We are looking closely at what are the things we can do to support our community by preventative primary health care that stops people presenting at the ED or going to a hospital bed.”

Mr King also said Naracoorte’s Moreton Bay House aged care sanctions had highlighted issues which they could learn from, roll out at their other sites and produce an overall better result in aged care.

LCLHN Director Mental Health Pauline Beach said the Consultation Liaison and Triage Service developed earlier this year had decreased the use of general hospital beds.

“We would like to develop our consultation liaison service further, currently it is a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 service and we would really like to extend … to Saturdays and extended hours,” she said.

Ms Beach said just under 45 full time equivalent (FTE) staff to service the whole region including the inpatient service presented a challenge.

“The challenge is being able to recruit to the more senior positions,” she said.

Ms Beach said there had been a significant increase in demand for mental health service from 2021 to 2022, with an almost 35% increase in referrals, which she believed was due to COVID, reduced stigma and difficulty accessing GP appointments.

Ms Beach said some people also could not afford the fees to access a private service such as a counsellor, therefore they presented at a public service.

She said there had been an increase in suicide in the region and across the state, so a project called Towards Zero Suicide was being worked on.

The project was launched by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and is part of the South Australian Mental Health Services Plan and the Suicide Prevention Plan.

Ms Beach said a Head to Health satellite centre would also be established in Mount Gambier.