Dear community member,

Maldon Hospital and Castlemaine Health have worked together for 42 years to deliver complete healthcare and wellbeing services across the communities of Mount Alexander. We share a CEO, workforce and many services and are always looking for other ways we can collaborate for the benefit of all.

Over the last few months, we have started making changes to the way we deliver healthcare in this region. We believe that together we can deliver better healthcare, closer to home and enhance services in our region, now and into the future. With strong support from hospital staff, we changed the way we deliver urgent care at Maldon Hospital. CHIRP Community Health also integrated with Castlemaine Health, which will ensure more equitable access to community health and wellbeing programs to the communities of Mount Alexander.

We now want to make sure Maldon Hospital can continue to build on its proud 161-year history of care in Maldon, with the same name, same historic building and connection to the community. It’s time to build on this collaboration – in fact, it’s overdue. We are acting to make our health resources work better for everyone and building on our long history of close cooperation. Now is the time to build on the collaboration of these two health services to:

• provide more training and development opportunities for our staff
• redirect resources and use them in different ways in areas that need it most
• enhance Maldon Hospital’s provision of allied health, primary care and aged care
• add services requested by the community and local medical staff.

We have an idea of what a new unified service could look like, but we need to hear from the communities of Mount Alexander so we can respond and plan for a shared future. Change will only happen if the boards are in agreement, if community benefit is assured, and if the State Government accepts the boards’ recommendations. We believe it’s important to work together now, to involve staff, patients, stakeholders and communities in planning for better regional health and wellbeing in the communities of Mount Alexander.

Community survey - now open

To have your say about a unified future for Maldon Hospital and Castlemaine Health, please fill out the community survey available on our website. You'll also find more information and background to this consultation at www.maldhosp.vic.gov.au.

From the team at Maldon Hospital