The NSW Government, now in caretaker mode leading up to the March 25 State election, has committed $1.6M to boost services at Long Jetty Health Care Centre over the next few months.
“The Long Jetty Health Care Centre is an important part of the community and we are committed to continuing to provide health services from this site,” Liberal Party candidate for The Entrance Nathan Bracken said.
Member for The Entrance David Mehan welcomed the news of the $1.6M funding and wants investment in the centre to continue, including Long Jetty being established as an Urgent Care centre.
“The Government has already announced plans to establish 25 Urgent Care Service centres across NSW, in addition to the 13 Urgent Care Clinics being provided by the Commonwealth,” he said.
“The Long Jetty centre is the perfect location for an Urgent Care Service for our region and the local community.”
Mehan said Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) estimated that 20 percent of people presenting at Gosford and Wyong hospital emergency departments could be seen at Long Jetty Health Care Centre.
There were 371 submissions to a recent review by CCLHD about services at Long Jetty to ensure the best health care needs of the local community were being met.
“I have worked hard to ensure the views of my community were acted on by Central Coast Local Health District and I’m pleased to see the effort of the staff’s endeavours to improve services at Long Jetty,” Mehan said.
Central Coast Health District Chief Executive Scott McLachlan, sad there was consultation with NSW Health staff and the local community which identified a need to bring together a comprehensive range of whole-of-lifespan primary and community health care services at the Long Jetty centre.
Following the NSW Government’s $1.6M funding commitment, Liberal Candidate Nathan Bracken said that in the short term the focus would be on providing a range of community health, chronic disease management and out-of-hospital services from Long Jetty.
“Co-locating these services together will provide our community with easily accessible, holistic and co-ordinated care from the one site, that will be refurbished to be more fit-for-purpose,” he said.
“In the long-term, the local health district will be further engaging with stakeholders, including staff, patients and the local community, to consider what other services may need to be provided at Long Jetty to best meet the health care needs of the community.”
Sue Murray