Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:05): (413) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to instruct her department to investigate and identify options for expanding aged care accommodation services at Terang hospital. Following the recent closure of the May Noonan aged care facility, the Terang community is facing an aged care crisis. The May Noonan aged care facility was an important part of the local community, providing a place for residents to receive the care they needed close to home, and it was convenient for family and friends to visit and offer their support. With the closure of May Noonan by Lyndoch Living, many existing residents were relocated to Warrnambool, a 40-minute drive away along the unsafe and poorly maintained Princes Highway.

Terang residents looking to enter aged care can only do that through the existing aged care facility at the Terang hospital, as their local option, and this centre is already at capacity and very limited. The Terang community have formed a committee to look at what can be done to fill the very large gap left by Lyndoch’s departure. Originally it was the locals who began this journey and saw the creation of the May Noonan Centre to become part of the town’s aged care facilities and care for elderly community members. It is very disappointing for them to see that they have lost the facility they worked so hard to create and support.

Terang locals are now doing anything and everything they can to facilitate the ability of people to grow old in the community. Many have lived in this community their whole lives, surrounded by the friends and family that they love to see every day. The community tells me lovely stories of how the residents of May Noonan who could walk up the street to the shops each day would be stopped frequently and would catch up for a chat. Everybody knows everybody in small towns like Terang, and it is devastating that the community can no longer be part of this journey and support the elderly members of their community.

The local community are ready and willing to assist, and they need to be included and involved in the necessary planning and facilitation of a solution for Terang. I have met with the committee formed, who raised with me the proposal to expand the number of aged care beds at the Terang hospital, where they believe it will be easier to meet the requirements, with registered nurses on duty at all hours of the day. The committee are conducting the due diligence required so the project will be ready to fund, and I am committed to working with the minister and the government to deliver this in a bipartisan manner as quickly as possible.

It is the government’s responsibility to support regional residents, and this can include providing funding and staff where the provision of aged care and hospital facilities intersects. This is particularly beneficial as it also addresses the severe underinvestment in our regional healthcare facilities that has occurred under Labor, which has shown across South-West Coast that it does not care about regional infrastructure, be it our roads, health, child care or public housing.