Some good news on palliative care services
19th October 2017
I was pleased to receive unanimous support from the Parliament today for improved palliative care services in Lake Macquarie and throughout the Hunter Region.
As you may know, I’ve been arguing for 24/7 palliative care outreach services to be extended beyond a boundary at Macquarie Road Fennell Bay to everyone in the Lake Macquarie electorate.
Today, following a good debate in the Legislative Assembly, my motion was supported. It calls on the government and Hunter New England Area Health Service to ensure that all people in the Lower Hunter have equal access to this important end-of-life service which allows them to spend their final days at home and not in a hospital.
I have made sure that the Health Minister is well aware of the concerns and I remain hopeful that some of the additional $100m the government has committed to palliative care services is used to extend the excellent in-home services beyond the 20km radius of Newcastle’s Calvary Mater Hospital.
While I thank the Government and the Health Minister for acknowledging our claim and supporting it, I also want to thank some of the Hunter’s other MPs who spoke in support of the motion. Sonia Hornery (Wallsend) has been a strong supporter of improved palliative care services as have Yasmin Catley (Swansea) and Jodie Harrison (Charlestown) who also spoke in support. It’s great that all sides of Parliament came together to support this motion and I hope that this support translates into greatly improved access to palliative care services in our region.
Click here to read a transcript of the debate.