Lou Dampney, NSW Regional Health Minister Ryan Park, Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland, Mylene and Fitzroy Boulting and Anne and Peter Cormick. Photo: Courtesy ONE Advocacy Group.
The NSW Government has announced $24 million for new key worker accommodation to bring healthcare workers to Eurobodalla, Bega and Crookwell.
Regional Minister for Health Ryan Park also made encouraging comments on the prospects for a local radiotherapy service (LRS) in the $330 million Level 4 regional hospital being built in Moruya.
While visiting the hospital’s construction site on Monday (19 May), he spoke with three members of the ONE Advocacy Group that has been campaigning to the NSW and Federal governments for an LRS in the hospital.
Lou Dampney, Peter Cormick and his wife Anne, are cancer survivors. They came away feeling optimistic the new hospital would have an LRS.
Mrs Cormick told Mr Park how she and her husband had each had to travel to Canberra for radiotherapy, telling him that the travel was difficult for cancer patients with children, animals or only one car.
“I told him how hard the oncology nurses in Moruya and Bega work and are keeping people alive but because there is no LRS, they don’t have the back-up and LRS is often an integral part of cancer treatment,” Mrs Cormick said.
Regional Health Minister Ryan Park (left) with Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland and staff from Southern NSW Local Health District at the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital site. Photo: Office of Regional Health Minister Ryan Park.
She gave Mr Park an article about a UK experiment to have radiotherapy available within 45 minutes’ travel of people’s homes and told him about the benefits of exercise physiology to cancer patients.
“I asked if we could have an exercise physiologist role in the new hospital and he said he would look at all these things,” Mrs Cormick said.
Fellow ONE Advocate Group members Mylene and Fitzroy Boulting were also very happy with how things had gone.
“Additionally and significantly, he confirmed that a designated area for the Radiotherapy Centre is now included in the master plan,” Ms Boulting said. “In answer to one of our direct questions, he told us the radiotherapy bunker will be completed before the contractors vacate the hospital site. Fantastic news.”
When asked about the LRS in the new hospital during a press conference, Mr Park said he was confident “those radiotherapies will be able to be delivered”.
“We’re in the final stages of going through the tender process. That’ll be out in the next few weeks,” Mr Park said. “I look forward to seeing what the market can offer in relation to this space.”
He said the hospital had been designed around existing transport infrastructure and was not reliant on the anticipated but unfunded Moruya bypass.
Mr Park commended Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland on his advocacy for the LRS in the new hospital, and thanked the Federal Government for its contribution to the LRS because it made a big difference.
“Cancer services closer to where people live make a tangible difference to their outcomes.”
Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland at the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital site on 19 May when Regional Health Minster Ryan Park visited. Photo: Lou Dampney.
The NSW Government’s $200.1 million Key Health Worker Accommodation program supports more than 20 projects across rural, regional and remote NSW.
The funding will secure around 120 dwellings across regional NSW, including the building of new accommodation, refurbishment of existing living quarters and the purchase of suitable properties such as residential units.
The four-year program will support the recruitment and retention of more than 500 health workers and their families by providing a range of accommodation options.
Mr Park said the accommodation would be for a combination of nursing, clinical, and allied healthcare staff. “Often what we try to do is look where the shortages are within a particular workforce and make sure that we can use housing as a way to attract that particular workforce.”
Mr Park also said that after doing some market soundings, he was confident in being able to attract the specialist workforce needed for the LRS.
“We’re actually surprised by the interest,” he said. “Part of the solution is making sure you’ve got really strong facilities that top-rate clinicians want to come and work at, want to study, want to learn, and want to develop their skills,” he said.
