WITH close to 300 registered participants at a Parkinson’s disease (PD) seminar in Tamworth this week, a theme has emerged that’s more than apparent.
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There’s a whole lot of people in Tamworth and district wanting as much information about this hidden disease as they can get their hands on.
Event co-ordinator John Crosby said the morning’s speakers – Professor Peter Silburn, Tamworth neurologist Dr James Hughes and PD nurse specialist Evelyn Collins – were all clearly “overloaded” with patients.
“These people who came to the seminar were hungry for information,” Mr Crosby said.
“If we had got 150 along to the seminar, we would have been delighted, but to have 288 registrations was just overwhelming.
“We now believe we can use these numbers to send a clear message to our political friends in government – that there is a great need for extra support for the neurologists in town to help them provide a better service.
“At the moment, they’re simply stretched to the limits and neither local specialist can take on any new patients for at least 12 months due to their current workload.
“No more than Evelyn Collins, the PD nurse specialist from Newcastle. She said she’s got no hope of covering this part of Hunter New England Health as well as her own area around Newcastle.
“That certainly highlights the need for someone else to take some of the load off her.”
Ms Collins told The Leader she would love the opportunity to come to Tamworth to mentor a nurse in the field, with a view to training them up to take on the PD specialist role, but her present workload did not permit that.
For the past four years, the Tamworth Parkinson’s Support Group has lobbied government for the appointment of a specialist nurse in the North West and New England.
“It would take a lot of pressure off the neurologists, if people could have their questions answered by the specialist nurse,” Mr Crosby said.
“At the moment the two neurologists in Tamworth are just so flat strap, they don’t have any means to answer those queries.”
After a panel discussion, the seminar broke for lunch and resumed with the afternoon’s speakers, RuralFit exercise physiologist Andrew Mahony, who spoke of exercise being “medicine” for Parkinson’s patients, and Richard Briley, from Regional Assessment Services, who gave an overview of aged care.
“We fully expected to lose quite a few people at lunchtime, but that didn’t happen,” Mr Crosby said.
“Everyone was keenly interested right to the end, which showed us how involved they were.”
Mr Crosby said he would continue to work with state MPs Kevin Anderson and Adam Marshall with a view to recruiting and/or training up a PD nurse specialist for the New England/North West area.
“It is very sad we have support from Mr Marshall and Mr Anderson, yet the bureaucrats are saying ‘no, we can’t do it (find a PD nurse specialist)’,” he said.
“The elected representatives of the people are not being allowed to deliver what the people are asking for.”
