The $1 million in government funding promised to refurbish Albury Hospital’s mental health unit will not be enough, Greg Alpin has warned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The high dependency unit at Nolan House has been closed due to safety and security concerns, which the Albury MLA estimated would require a $20 million rebuild to properly fix.
In the meantime, patients needing the highest level of support were being turned away and sent 127 kilometres away to Wagga or 175 kilometres to Shepparton.
“One can imagine the additional stress this places on families and health practitioners at a time of crisis,” Mr Aplin told NSW Parliament.
“The structure is only 23 years old and I cannot understand how it was ever built this way.”
Problems included toilet areas out of sight of staff, outdated keys which take too long to use in the case of an emergency, no proper consultation rooms and too many possible hanging points.
“This is the age of ice methamphetamines, which introduces significant risks of serious physical attack on staff and other patients,” Mr Aplin said.
“I am not after the Ritz, but Nolan House is a facility well out of time, its layout is flawed and the safety of patients and staff is compromised.”
He thanked NSW Mental Health Minister Tanya Davies for visiting Albury last week to announce the NSW and Victorian governments would contribute $500,000 each to refurbish Nolan House, but said the improvements could just disappear with a rebuild and argued the whole project should be brought forward to coincide with the $30 million emergency department rebuild.
Friends of Nolan House member Fred Ford said although the group was appreciative of the support of Ms Davies, he agreed with Mr Aplin’s assessment of the issues.
Members were raising money for pay for furnishings inside Nolan House to ensure the whole of the $1 million could be spent on structural works.
“This is a start, but there needs to be more done,” he said. “They’re more aware now of the issues.”