Dear Mr McBride

I write to you as the local member covering Keith and Bordertown.

COTA SA has been contacted by a very angry constituent about a consultation in relation to a proposed model of care for Keith. I understand there will be 2 public meetings - 5pm on 1st March and 10am on 2nd March on the lawns at the back of the Keith Institute. The feedback includes -

• With no taxi or regular transport service to Bordertown Hospital, residents with no vehicle or restricted driver's licence will not be able to visit hospitalised relatives or friends and will struggle to get home from Bordertown on discharge.
• Continuing concern about the community’s longstanding support for the bricks and mortar building through fundraising, volunteering, donations.
• Being shipped out to Bordertown away from family for palliative or end of life care, alone in another town, and stressing out in all likelihood a frail spouse.
• Loss of advantage of quick evacuation given Keith is at the junction of Riddoch and Duke's Hwy.
• While Bordertown is 46km from Keith, many rural residents would add this distance to their distance from Keith...this could be of the order of 100km or more for many to get to Bordertown.
• Will a volunteer ambulance service support the workload?

In our Election Platform, COTA SA has urged the incoming State Government to develop a Regional Ageing Strategy – 26% of older South Australians live outside Adelaide but we are very poorly prepared (including in health, aged care and transport) for this.

COTA SA is a small NFP organisation representing older South Australians. We struggle to keep on top of the many issues across regional SA including those raised with us during our Listening Posts. We were in Keith last year and this was a very important issue as I am sure your office has heard.

Is your office involved in the consultations? What is your position in relation to the proposed model of care?