The patient from Coleraine in south-west Victoria has been on the waiting list for eye surgery at Portland District Health for a year.

His surgery was cancelled last month when the hospital's only eye surgeon Dr Robert Harvey resigned after he was denied a change from a salaried position with PDH to a visiting medical officer (VMO) role.

Mr Benson has had to start again from scratch on the waiting list at Mount Gambier in South Australia, 100 kilometres from his home.

"I didn't even realise it had got so bad until the lens fell out of my glasses and I couldn't see that it had gone," Mr Benson said.

"The cataracts got so bad I've lost complete eyesight in one eye."

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The 59-year-old is unable to drive so has to rely on family members to take him to and from appointments.

"It's more inconvenient than anything," he said.

"I went through Dr Harvey when I was in Portland, now I have to be re-tested.

"This was the only appointment available so I had to be up at 6am."

Dr Harvey said he had many patients in a similar situation to Mr Benson, and a waiting list of 150 people.

"His left eye has a white pupil due to his dense cataract so he cannot even see his hands with this eye," Dr Harvey said.

"He's been on the Portland waiting list for one year and was just cancelled last week, so he's starting from scratch at Mount Gambier."

The loss of ophthalmology follows the suspension of birthing services, seeing mums-to-be forced to travel to Warrnambool to give birth, resulting in the resignation of the hospital's head midwife. Last week the hospital's midwives wrote a letter to the board expressing support for the obstetrician.

Last week the hospital also lost its anaesthetic trainee, just one year after it became the smallest service to deliver the training.

As reported on Friday by The Standard, the generalist anaesthetist training at PDH was scrapped and moved to Hamilton due to the absence of a FANZCA specialist.

PDH acting director of anaesthetics Dr Peter Reid said it was a huge blow for the service.

"I can't stress this enough, to get to be the smallest place in Australia to get this training was huge," Dr Reid said.

"To lose it within a year is heartbreaking.

"The hospital supported it, the executive supported it, and the board is not listening to anyone, not even the executives."

Today the Portland community lodged a petition to parliament calling on the Hillis recommendations to be actioned and to increase funding at PDH.

The petition which gained more than 2300 signatures also calls for a guarantee from the state government that the service won't be amalgamated.

South West Coast MP Roma Britnell will table the petition in the lower house this week.

In a statement, a PDH spokesman said the hospital was actively recruiting midwives to reopen the birthing service, as soon as is it is safe to do so.

"We are also actively recruiting to recommence ophthalmology services," he said.

"Portland District Health is continuing to provide quality care for Portland residents and the surrounding district.

"While there are ongoing challenges associated with the pandemic and workforce shortages, we're working hard to find solutions and bring about long-lasting change.

"We don't comment on individual staffing matters."

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