MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall emphasised the importance of community consultation to the clinical services for the $30 million Inverell hospital redevelopment, and while he would like to see the funding stretch far enough for the construction of a new hospital, he said it would all depend on community needs in the future.
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“It’s always a balancing act with health infrastructure,” he said.
“Do you pour the money into brand-new bricks and mortar, or do you try to strike the balance right, where you build new bricks and mortar where it’s needed?
“The most important is the services provided.”
Mr Marshall emphasised his point by relating a recent personal experience with the services provided at Inverell Hospital.
“Last week, when I was in town, I was approached by a lady who said ‘We don’t have a CT scanner here in Inverell’, and she had her mother visiting and a terrible situation where she had to make a decision, based on not the full information, to keep her mother on life support or have it switched off,” Mr Marshall said.
“In the end she made a very difficult decision, but the point was, given that Inverell’s growing, and growing quite rapidly, that a CT scanner is something that we could potentially look at.
“That’s something that will come out in the planning process, but you may not need a new building for that to occur. You may be able to refurbish an existing building on site.”
Mr Marshall said while there was nothing wrong with wanting a new hospital, he thought perhaps better health outcomes could be achieved with a combination new and old buildings, by introducing new services into existing buildings.
“That’s why this planning process is so important, and the community will get plenty of input and really will get to make a call on where we want to see those dollars go,” he said.
