BY MATT JOHNSTON
The state government has announced $100 million in funding to create new HealthOne facilities across the state, and refurbish existing facilities. Eight brand new HealthOne facilities were announced, including one in Nelson Bay.
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Credit: Port Stephens Examiner |
Eight million dollars is going towards building the facility at the site of Tomaree Community Hospital, says Duty MLC for Port Stephens Catherine Cusack. This will be Port Stephens’ second facility after Raymond Terrace, and the fifth full service for the Hunter New England health area.
Ms Cusack says Nelson Bay was chosen because of the expanding population and its growing need for a diverse range of health services. “It was ideally located in terms of additional demand for service and we’re very pleased as we constantly seek to expand the amount of health services available that Tomaree Community Hospital was one of those selected”.
Funding for the project has already been approved, and preliminary work is underway to determine the exact structure of the new facility. Ms Cusack says quite a bit of design work and consultation is still required. As of yet, there is no timeline in place for the construction of the new services.
“This will bring together general practitioners with community health and other health professionals across multidisciplinary teams. So it’s got a lot of homework that has to be done until the actual, physical construction begins. But certainly, that work is already underway.”
“It’s fantastic to upgrade health services again on the peninsula, having just announced the new X-ray facilities”. Ms Cusack says the funding for the project will come in addition to the funding already allocated for the new X-ray machines.