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- 30 November 2005
Kyogle Memorial Health Service
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Page: 20380
Mr THOMAS GEORGE (Lismore) [5.35 p.m.]: On Monday 28 November I was pleased to welcome the Hon. John Hatzistergos, MLC, Minister for Health, to perform the opening of the Kyogle Memorial Health Service. On that occasion, as member for Lismore I also had the pleasure of representing the Hon. Ian Causley, the Federal member for Page. It was certainly a very big day for Kyogle. The day was a dream come true for the members of the Kyogle Health Service Planning and Steering Committee, which was elected in January 1995 and given the task of attempting to devise a replacement for the hospital. The Multi Purpose Service Program is a joint Commonwealth-State initiative established as one mechanism to address the difficulties of providing acute services and aged care services in rural and remote communities. It certainly has provided those services at Kyogle.
The State Government provided funding of $10.3 to build a new centre, but it would not have been possible, of course, if the Federal Government had not provided recurrent funding for the 25 aged care licences and the six community care packages. The committee began working with the area health service in January 1995 and has met almost every month over that period of 10 years. The committee has certainly been dedicated. During the first two years the committee was busy collecting data relating to the health needs of the Kyogle community to determine where the gaps were in available services. But all that came to an abrupt halt when the committee was advised by the area chief executive officer that its plan was not acceptable to the New South Wales Department of Health and that there would be no point in continuing.
Undaunted, the committee decided to say "goodbye" to the area health service, adopt the motto of "Patience, Politeness and Persistence", and pursue the matter. It certainly did that. In 1999 the then Minister for Health, Craig Knowles, established a committee to further investigate the health needs of rural and remote New South Wales. I advised the president of the local committee, Tom Fitzgerald, who wrote to Ian Sinclair and invited him to visit Kyogle, and the first meeting of the Sinclair Committee was held in that town. The Sinclair Committee expected 10 or 15 people at the lunchtime meeting in the Kyogle Town Hall, but 350 people turned up. It was soon decided that Kyogle deserved to be included in the Multi Purpose Service Program and that is when the local committee began its hard work.
Kyogle now has a purpose-built centre that will provide comfortable and dignified surroundings to all who come through its doors and a continuum of health services for many years to come. I pay tribute to Tom Fitzgerald and his wife, Betty, who has supported him. Tom headed up the steering committee, whose members included Ruth Barringham, Heather Bartnick, Mayor Ernie Bennett, Sandra Davies, Judy Ellem, Sue Ellis, Anne Feodoroff, Mary Garred, Bill Greenaway, Grahame Gooding, Alyson Jarrett, Joe Llewellyn, Dr Perry and Vahid Saberi. Particular thanks go to Ruth Barringham and Joe Llewellyn, who have worked with Tom Fitzgerald since the inception of the committee in 1995.
Appreciation is extended to the New South Wales Ambulance Transport Service for its contribution towards the building costs. Particular thanks go to Vahid Saberi and John Lambert, Manager of Assets and Capital Works, and Murray Saul from the Department of Commerce. The Fundraising Committee under President Mrs Ellen Dougherty and Secretary Margaret Ellis—two great names from Kyogle—and former president the late Mrs Edna Andrews raised $215,000 towards the project. The committee purchased a motor buggy, piano and hydraulic commode, and paid for landscaping to the tune of $15,000. The community donated a total of $89,000, including $20,000 from the hospital auxiliary, towards the cost of the digital x-ray—the first online digital x-ray in Australia.
I place on record my appreciation of the efforts of the entire community, the service clubs, and everyone who contributed to the success of the Kyogle Health Centre. In that regard I mention a recent donation of $20,000 from Mr and Mrs Alan Brown. Thanks also go to Mrs Helen Flower, also of the History Book. It was a great day and a credit to the Kyogle community. Congratulations, and well done!
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