A LEADING health advocate has slammed the state of Tamworth’s palliative care, saying the current staffing numbers are shocking and ludicrous.
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Tamworth has been found to lag a long way behind in palliation staffing numbers compared with figures in other regional NSW cities.
New figures released by Push for Palliative – an end-of-life advocacy group driven by retired specialist Yvonne McMaster – show the country music capital fell well behind palliation nursing numbers in other comparable regional centres.
Right now, Tamworth has one full-time palliative care nurse compared to Orange’s 4.6, Bathurst’s three, Dubbo’s four and Wagga Wagga’s 3.4.
The figures have been compiled by Dr McMaster as part of her research for the Push for Palliative campaign.
Hunter New England Health announced it would fund an additional palliative care clinical nurse specialist for Tamworth, taking the region’s nursing staff to a total of two.
“It’ll be a big help,” Dr McMaster said.
“But, it’s nowhere near enough to what’s needed, it’s ludicrous at the moment.
“What happens now, when that one nurse goes on holiday?”
Dr McMaster said Tamworth was in dire need of a palliative physician.
“It is crucial; it is vital,” she told The Leader.
“The minimum recommendation is one physician per 100,000 people in the population, so the region could probably do with two.”
HNEH’s commitment to a new permanent nursing position comes after nearly one year of campaigning from Tamworth’s champions for the cause, Mitch Williams and Lucy Haslam.
“It’s through the work of people like Lucy and Mitch that things like this can happen,” Dr McMaster said.
Mr Williams said it has taken a year of work to get “to the starting line where we’re going to see some improvements coming to Tamworth”.
Dr McMaster congratulated the Tamworth pair and said they shouldn’t have to wait to see further boosts to local services.
“It should be immediate, those jobs should be advertised right now,” Dr McMaster said.
While the retired physician said the announcement was wonderful, she emphasised how far Tamworth had to go to get up to scratch with the rest of NSW.
“Dubbo’s [four] nurses are stretched covering a very large area,” she said.