Grateful for outstanding medical care
We would like to thank the Bendigo ambulance service for their caring manner when my wife was picked up from home last Friday morning, in a great deal of pain, after having a procedure to the nerves in her back at the Melbourne Spinal Clinic - very professional people.
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When she arrived at Bendigo base hospital emergency, again considering the workload they are under, the nursing staff were polite and caring, and the two doctors involved in her case not only balanced out the pain she was getting, but chased up the specialist in Melbourne, who we had never been able to contact directly, and arranged her a consultation for Tuesday next week.
Just observing the workload the emergency area is under, I really don’t know how they cope so well. Congratulations for efficient and caring service.
What a lot of people may not realise is that not only is the emergency area dealing with public patients, but also private patients have to go there as well, because the private hospitals do not have emergency facilities, if they did it would help take some of the load off the overworked staff in the base hospital emergency area.
I really do not understand why this is not the case.
Barry Nankervis, Golden Square
School community deserves praise
On Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Bendigo Senior Secondary School Anzac commemoration service.
It was an excellent and very moving tribute to the first Anzacs and all those who have served Australia in the armed forces since. A special mention was made of Long Tan - 50 years - in the Vietnam conflict.
Congratulations to principal Dale Pearce and his students for a very respectful and wonderful service at Ulumbarra Theatre then a walk up the memorial steps of the school.
Councillor Helen Leach, City of Greater Bendigo
Admit defeat in war on drugs
The state government should be complimented for the decision to massively expand the Drug Court.
It is expected to almost triple the number of offenders who will be given the chance to turn their lives around. The lack of effective sentencing options for serious drug-related offences has resulted in increased imprisonment rates, increased re-offending and a failure to address the underlying causes of addiction.
At the Drug Court, offenders are sentenced to a two-year custodial sentence served in the community whilst they undergo a drug treatment order.
Invariably, that includes conditions such as drug testing, working with a case manager, drug and alcohol counselling and regular appearances before the magistrate, who assumes some responsibility for guiding offenders through the process.
In 2014, audit firm KPMG found 83 per cent of people who completed a drug treatment order through the court between 2006 and 2012 did not re-offend while on their order. After 12 months, people who took part in the program showed a 23 per cent drop in recidivism compared with people sentenced through other courts; after 24 months a 29 per cent drop.
Many of those coming before the Drug Court would otherwise face jail, at a far greater cost to taxpayers. Putting an offender through the Drug Court’s program for two years would cost about $26,000 compared with an average cost of $197,000 to imprison someone for two years.
I would eventually like to see an enlightened federal government really bite the bullet and take its cue from Portugal by decriminalising all substances and divert resources from criminal justice to health, welfare and education.
The war on drugs is a lost war.