River Cares says the Mangrove Mountain/Lower Hawkesbury area has been overlooked yet again with the recent opening of an urgent care clinic at Umina Beach and another soon to open at Lake Haven.
Spokesperson Robyn Downham said she had raised the issue with Member for Robertson Gordon Reid and asked about the possibility of another clinic west of the M1 to service the southern-most part of the region.
“Apparently we do not have the population to warrant an Urgent Care Clinic in this area and Mr Reid said he feels that the two medical practices in Mangrove Mountain are sufficient,” Downham said.
“Therefore, the residents in the Mangrove Mountain and surrounding districts have to continue to make the time-consuming trip to either Gosford or Wyong hospitals for urgent and/or acute treatment and have to wait long hours in the emergency department.
“Why does this part of the Central Coast LGA always get overlooked or never considered in significant matters such as this?”
Downham said residents of Spencer, Gunderman and surrounding areas faced up to an hour’s drive to the Gosford Hospital emergency department when experiencing medical issues outside the purview of a regular GP.
She said medical and support services in the area were sadly lacking.
“We don’t have a District Nurse since the last one retired earlier this year and to date there has been no replacement,” she said.
“We have limited services to the area.
“Baptist Care has recently pulled out and Uniting Care left us high and dry over a year ago.
“Mabel and Hammond Care are currently seeing five people but there are a number of elderly people who desperately need transport, domestic cleaning, personal care and general property maintenance.
“Unfortunately we have had eight deaths this year – all long-standing members of the community.
“Due to limited services and being an elderly demographic, people are starting to move out of the area to be closer to much-needed services.
“This in turn is starting to have an impact on the community slowly decreasing which we don’t want to have happen.”
Downham said community transport was also an issue of concern.
“There is a community bus that comes down once a fortnight to take people to Gosford for shopping and appointments etc but that’s all,” she said.
“A number of people have asked for a community bus to come down to Spencer to take a group to a pool for aqua therapy or to have medical checkups etc (with no success).”
Terry Collins
we ARE truly “the forgotten valley”
No one delivers here,
No one wants have to travel so far for treatment