After weeks of criticisms and a level of harassment from community members for seeming inactivity, Griffith's Local Health Advisory Committee has emphasised the work it's been doing behind the scenes and confirmed it will be taking steps to be more visible.
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Chairwoman of Griffith's LHAC Margaret King has been on the other end of the complaints and critiques from community members on social media. Many have been saying that the committee has done little for Griffith and hasn't campaigned hard enough for recent developments such as the orthopaedic surgeons.
Ms King said it had been unpleasant but they were still going strong.
"Personally, it's difficult ... There's lots of words going around behind the social media - it's not pleasant at the moment but we're certainly still up and running," she said.
"There are certain individuals trying to run us into the ground."
One community member critiqued the 'Save Griffith Base Hospital' committee for their repeated accusations that the LHAC are simply 'puppets' of the MLHD.
One critic on Helen Dalton's celebratory facebook post for the orthopaedic surgeons said that the LHAC had 'no teeth' and had failed to stick up for the community or question the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
Ms King said that the reason they hadn't campaigned for it was that they already knew the new services had been coming.
"We're certainly very excited about the announcement of orthopaedic services - this is something we've been kept updated on. I know we've been targeted by some individuals that we weren't lobbying, however we didn't need to because we were kept up to date every month with it."
"We've been kept up to date for a while."
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Ultimately, she said that the complaints that had been coming had little to do with LHAC's role.
"We just focus on what we are doing and what we do well, and recognising that we might need to become a bit more visible and thinking of ways we can do that. The support we have far outweighs any of the negativity, and we've got a fabulous bunch of members."
"Our role is dissemination of information - it's also about identifying gaps but we are not about anything to do with staffing - that's not our core business, neither is the hospital build."
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