Notification to Veterans Regarding The Rosemary Centre
Veterans First Consulting (VFC) wishes to provide clarification on developments affecting our organisation and the veteran community in relation to The Rosemary Centre.
VFC and The Rosemary Centre are separate and independent organisations. We do not share a company structure. There is no common governance between the companies and there is no agreement on financial arrangements between the organisations. The Rosemary Centre is one of the largest and most well respected veteran centric medical clinics in Australia so it is only natural that many VFC veteran clients utilised this service.
VFC is aware that an investigation is currently being undertaken by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) into the practices of The Rosemary Centre. We have not been provided with any details about the nature, scope, or current status of the investigation. Despite making several formal requests for information, we have not yet received clarity from the DVA.
We understand that this situation is causing concern and significant disruption for our veteran clients. Please be assured that VFC is doing everything within our power to minimise the impact on services and support. Our team remains fully committed to maintaining continuity of care, ensuring that your needs continue to be met with the professionalism and respect you deserve.
In most instances, the DVA is insisting that veterans attend MLCOA for an independent medical report. The DVA has an exclusive arrangement with the MLCOA to obtain medical reports from them and is upholding that arrangement. We wrote to the DVA to explain that our veterans have a right to attend their treating doctor to obtain an initial diagnosis and that we object to our veterans being forced to attend MLCOA but the response was not helpful.
The DVA is not just targeting VFC veterans and the same issues are arising for other advocacy providers who are also unable to gain any meaningful response from the DVA.
We will provide updates as soon as any new information becomes available. In the meantime, we have written to Senator Jacqui Lambie and we will continue to escalate the concerns until we receive a satisfactory response. We encourage veterans to write to Senator Lambie directly at her publicly available email address senator.lambie@aph.gov.au
We sincerely thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued trust during this challenging period.
If any veteran or family member has questions, concerns, or would like to discuss the above information, we strongly encourage them to contact us directly. We are here to help.
