Forbes mayor Phyllis Miller recently met with NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner to seek reassurance that Forbes Hospital would keep all of its services at the completion of the Lachlan Health Service Project.
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Cr Miller, along with acting general manager Amity Howe, met with Ms Skinner and Member for Orange Andrew Gee at Parliament House earlier this month to raise concerns about rumours that some of our hospital services would be transferred to Parkes Hospital.
Of particular concern for Cr Miller is whether Forbes will keep its sterilisation unit.
“The meeting was making sure that we’re not losing any services and I wanted clarification on how they’ll be delivered,” Cr Miller said.
“Our big concern was that it is imperative that we keep the sterilising unit and not have an outreach.
“There was some rumour that it would be put into Parkes Hospital.”
Cr Miller said at this stage the health minister is unable to confirm the future of the sterilisation unit.
“No decision has been made at all,” she said.
“I’m hopeful but there’s no doubt they only want one sterilisation unit, so that’s why we want to do it now while they’re still building up there.”
Sterilisation services are currently only conducted at Forbes Hospital and Cr Miller believes they should stay here because of the higher operating figures in Forbes.
“Of the two sites [Forbes and Parkes], we’re doing more theatre work,” she said.
“We’ve been doing the sterilising for the past five or six years and we believe because of the amount of work that we do in our theatre, we should keep it,” she said.
“Our doctors have worked hard to build our business at Forbes Hospital...they believe it’s important that we keep that sterilising unit.”
Cr Miller also wanted clarification about pathology services, which will be delivered in a new way.
She is currently still waiting to be briefed on the changes.
Parking was another issue on the agenda but Forbes Shire Council has agreed to wait until the construction of the hospital is complete before a decision is made about a new parking site.
“We need to wait until it’s finished and see how the parking works then...but we asked them to leave the door open if we do need more parking,” Cr Miller said.
Cr Miller also asked the minister to consider putting play equipment on the hospital grounds, so children of patients could stay on site.
Ultimately, Cr Miller said the meeting was a positive one.
“The minister is very honest and very easy to do business with,” she said.
“I came out knowing that there was still some hope that things would be okay.
“We’re pretty excited about getting a new hospital.”
