Our History

The Phillip Island Medical and Health Action Group (PIMHAG) is an independent and self-funding group of dedicated volunteers who are committed to improving medical and health services for the people of Phillip Island. We have been advocating for over 16 years for improved Medical and Health services for Phillip Island and Wonthaggi Hospital after the closure of the much loved Warley hospital in Cowes.

We work actively with all levels of government and have been publicly recognised and thanked by Federal and State Ministers of both the Liberal and Labor parties for our advocacy. We continue to meet with all parties and we are clearly non-partisan in our successes.

To ensure we represent our community, and as Bass Coast is identified as an area of low socio-economic levels, it is vital that there is adequate provision of publicly funded services.

 To date our efforts have been critical to obtaining major improvements in services for the Island, and include:

  1. The purchase of land for the Medical hub in Church St. in 2010.
  2. The building of the Minor Illness and injury Centre in Dec 2018. This included the provision of 24/7 care which was bulk billed. This facility treated 10,000 people in its first year. We were told three years before this would never happen.
  3. The Urgent Care Centre opened in Nov 2019, with 4 dedicated and equipped bays.
  4. We are currently advocating for increased Mental Health provision in Bass Coast and Phillip Island and have recently held a Mental Health Forum to facilitate networking amongst existing MH services, help us identify gaps in services to focus our future advocacy and create some resources to help people find services.
  5. The Phillip Island Community Hospital (PICH) which is under construction on the old PICAL site adjacent to the Urgent Care Centre and is scheduled to open mid 2025.

What will be included in the PICH?

– Urgent care services
– Dialysis
– Day chemotherapy
– Day surgery
– General medical and specialist appointments
– Women’s health
– Social support services
– Paediatric care		– Diagnostic services, incl. pathology and imaging
– Public dental services
– Chronic disease management
– Mental health services
– Alcohol and other drug support services
– Family safety and crisis support services
– Allied health and rehabilitation services
– Pharmacy services.

PIMHAG has also been a major player in the formation of the Phillip Island Hub Auxiliary and several PIMHAG members are on the Committee participating in Fund Raising activities to purchase much needed medical equipment to enhance the services provided from the Hub.

Whilst these are wonderful steps forward, our job is not completed.

For example, it is estimated that 1 in 5 Australian children will experience Mental Health issues and without early intervention these issues may be carried into adult life. When you include issues of addiction, family violence, gender issues, plus problems reintegrating with normal life for returning members of our armed forces and first responders and including the stresses of life eg financial and employment for example, then a significant proportion of the Australian population are experiencing Mental Health issues of some degree at any one time. Regional areas are much more poorly resourced in these services than the cities and Bass Coast is worse than many, as our identified provider of Psychiatric services is LaTrobe Hospital, which is about 2 hours away on tricky roads and with no public transport options. We need to identify the gaps that exist and start advocating to remedy them.

Over the next two years in the Bass Coast area there is a projected shortfall of 300 age-care beds, meaning that unless provision is made in the near future, these people will need to be housed away from their home area, or placed in other facilities such as hospitals. This will make it impossible for them to access their social support networks including friends and family. The current situation, with an ongoing Royal Commission for Ageing, makes this the ideal time to for PIMHAG to begin advocating strongly for a significant increase in publicly funded beds in this area.

There is also a significant gap in public dental services for adults, with wait lists of up to several years for regular care, although urgent cases are treated promptly at the BCH facility. Whilst there has been a focus upon improving child dental services over the past years, adult dental care has not received the same attention. Bass Coast and Phillip Island are areas of low Socio-economic standing, making publicly funded dental care very important at all stages of life.

Our ongoing brief at Sept 2024 is:

  1. Monitor the completion of the building of the Community Hospital on time and on budget and staffed to meet the needs of the community.
  2. To see the Hospital is equipped with the latest medical equipment to develop and support Cardiology, Oncology and Dialysis treatment on the Island.
  3. To identify and advocate for improved Mental Health Services for the Phillip Island community.
  4. Address the acute shortage of residential aged care beds in the Bass Coast.
  5. To continue advocating for more services and improvements to Wonthaggi Hospital.
  6. To secure better public access to adult dental services in the area

Our successes to date have made a significant difference to medical and health provision on the Island today. We have travelled a long way but our journey is far from finished.