Never before has Albury-Wodonga had access to a specialist palliative care physician – but that could soon change.
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Mercy Health Albury, which shares the provision of end-of-life-support with Albury Wodonga Health, is currently recruiting for the position.
It’s something that Cancer Council NSW advocate Jenny Jensen believes could change care on the Border.
“We have had fly-in, fly-out palliative care physicians and Mercy have one, but it’s once a month,” she said.
“If we had a physician on the ground, then there could be so much more done in training.
“I received a letter yesterday from (NSW Health Minister) Jillian Skinner addressing the issues, but again, she says there is enough there.”
Employing more palliative care physicians was a goal of the NSW government’s four-year palliative care plan.
At the time of the report’s release in 2012, an additional $35 million was committed to improve access to care for people who are dying.
While the NSW Health Department did not respond to questions about where or how much of that funding had been spent, Albury MLA Greg Aplin said progress on the plan had been made.
“We managed to secure funding for two additional palliative care clinical nurses specialists for the area of Murrumbidgee Local Health District,” he said.
“At the end of 2013, the minister announced $35 million for palliative care packages and they were available for people throughout our district.
“The regional cancer centre makes available palliative care radiation services and the government gave $982,000 towards the delivery of that this year.”
Mr Aplin agreed that securing a physician for the Border would be welcome progress in expanding care for residents.
“It would be very significant – that person would serve palliative care services across the region,” he said.
This year, the Victorian government committed $7.2 million to objectives in its new palliative care framework.
Albury Wodonga Health will receive $1.3 million for palliative care services this financial year from the Victorian government, an increase of $110,360 on last year.