Mr GREG PIPER (Lake Macquarie) (23:57): Last week I was joined by both the Minister for Health and Lake Macquarie City Council Mayor Adam Shultz to announce that the Government is investing $350,000 to expand rehab in the home to southern Lake Macquarie. Rehab in the home helps patients to transition out of hospitals and back into their homes to complete their rehabilitation journeys or while waiting for access to longer term rehab services. In a stretched healthcare system where beds are hard to come by, timely discharge pathways that improve patient flow, such as rehab in the home, are so important. This home-based care takes pressure off our local health districts. It also helps patients by reducing their need to travel to appointments and by facilitating a smoother shift back into their everyday lives at home.
However, in discussion with Hunter New England Local Health District last year, I identified that people in the rapidly growing southern part of my electorate could not access this service. We know that access to public health services is a huge issue for people living in Morisset, Cooranbong, Wyee and the greater surrounding area. Hunter New England Health reached this very conclusion when it assessed the healthcare needs of the region in 2024. Southern Lake Macquarie is a major growth corridor in the lower Hunter and one of the fastest growing areas in the State. It also abuts the growing northern communities of the Central Coast. An increasing number of ageing residents, as well as young families, are calling this region home. In 2024 a Hunter New England Health report recommended a HealthOne be built in southern Lake Macquarie in the next five years at a site which could facilitate expansion into a district hospital in 10 to 15 years. It also recommends identifying a location to deliver additional community health services in Morisset over the following 12 months.
I am pleased to report the outreach services rolled out early last year in response to the review are a success. We have nurse practitioner-led aged care, wound care and continence clinics running out of the Morisset Multi‑Purpose Centre. Those clinics are helping treat people closer to home and have been well utilised. The recently announced investment in rehab in the home builds on this success and addresses the need for community orthopaedic rehab services. I met with the health Minister earlier this year about additional funding and I am pleased money was allocated in this year's budget to expand the program. This seemingly relatively modest investment by the Government will mean that the number of full-time employees can be increased. In turn, this will facilitate access to community-based rehab services in Southern Lake Macquarie for people discharged from both Hunter New England and Central Coast facilities. This is significant as hospital in-patient data indicates more residents in the area visit Wyong and Gosford hospitals than Belmont or John Hunter hospitals.
More community health services and discharge pathways are vital to keep people out of hospital and get them home faster. But this is only part of the solution for people living in Morisset and its surrounds. We need a permanent public health presence in the region which properly meets the community's needs. I know locals are fed up with the public services and infrastructure failing to match the area's growth. I continue to advocate for a HealthOne in Southern Lake Macquarie—a call backed by Lake Macquarie City Council which also believes a HealthOne facility would help address the service gaps we are seeing. Once again, I genuinely thank the health Minister and the Government for listening and responding to my call for this commonsense investment in rehab in the home. I also thank Louise Lazic and the Hunter New England health professionals who, through these services, provide compassionate, local and much-needed care to the people living in Southern Lake Macquarie.