A new hospital for Tumut may still be some years off, but there is light on the horizon with a public meeting this week told an architect has commenced a preliminary facility review as the first step to convince NSW Health to build the new hospital within ten years.
It was also told a new hospital in all likelihood would be built within the grounds of the current hospital's 13 acre site, which has less than a quarter of its space occupied by buildings.
In terms of the priority list Tumut remains behind a new Wagga Base Hospital which has advanced to Project Definition stage, and is expected to take at least five years to complete, and also Bega Hospital on the south coast, which, whilst some 18 months behind Wagga in terms of planning, has been officially announced as a project by NSW Health and the government
But Tuesday night's public meeting to review progress on the Tumut Health Service Plan was told the redevelopment of the Service remains a firm priority for Greater Southern Area Health Service, and the results of the site review will be forwarded to NSW Health to support the site's priority status.
That facility review process is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The results of the architect's preliminary report are expected to be presented as early as 6-8 weeks time at a further Tumut public meeting.
The meeting was informed the local Health Advisory Committee and GSAHS remain committed to seeing planning for a complete redevelopment of the local health service commenced within the next 3-5 years.
"Wagga and Bega are now in train, Tumut is next," said GSAHS's corporate planning manager, Janet Chapman.
"It is our firm goal to have a Tumut redevelopment on the capital works program of NSW Health within 3 to 5 years.
"It was identified some years ago as a priority with the (former pre-merger) Greater Murray Area Health Service, and has retained that priority with Greater Southern.
"Wagga Base planning has commenced, Bega has been recently announced, Tumut is the next cab off the rank ... the planning is progressing well."
Ms Chapman pointed out to the meeting, attended by some 40 people. It would then be up to NSW Health to find the money, not GSAHS whose job it was to identify priorities.
The meeting was told that with a Service Plan and review process in place. The next step would be a full asset audit, with information then going to NSW Health to assist it in the way it would allocate its health capital works budget.
"NSW Health is considering its ten year program, and we want Tumut to be included," she said.
Following the meeting she said this wouldn't impact on the planning process for various Multi Purpose Service" projects within the GSAHS area, subject to a different capital funding pool, where current priorities were Batlow, Berrigan, Junee, and Bombala.
Architect Ted Doufas, engaged to undertake the facility review and develop a master plan for short, medium and long term solutions for the Tumut Health Service, said over coming weeks he would be preparing a brief report aimed at generating ideas on what should happen for the future.
That would be followed by a strategic Assets Plan aimed at covering the hospital's functionality, a Service Procurement Plan involving consultation with user groups and the community, and then a project Definition Plan identifying the scope of the redevelopment, a design brief and costing.
The final stage would be design development and construction.
"In the meantime there is much consultation to be carried out and what we are looking at in the immediate future is a mud-map strategy in both a functional and physical sense," he said.
The architect, whilst not commenting on the results of an inspection on Tuesday, said he "would be very surprised" if his report did not show that the existing hospital site was the appropriate site for a new hospital, although alternative sites would be taken into account.
""It is a wonderful site on a plateau. There is ample space so a new facility there appears the likely scenario so far as the review is concerned," he said.
"Currently there are some very early buildings there developed over the years in an ad hoc manner.
"A redeveloped Tumut Health Service facility would have to meet modern standards, and would be built as a compact, functional facility that would see the local region through into the future and most importantly be designed in such as way as to best serve the staff and their patients.
"I think it would be possible to create a new one and keep the existing hospital operational."
Whilst Mr Doufas said it was far too early to put any cost estimate on such a project, Tumut was a bona fide District Hospital as distinct from a facility aimed more at residential aged care.
It would be planned as a 30 bed hospital for acute patients.
In current terms small MPS projects such as Bombala were costed at around $9 million, whilst in larger centres such as Queanbeyan, the hospital cost around $45 million.
During questions and comments from the floor, local real estate agent Lorraine Wysman said given the Wagga, then Tumut, project scenario she hoped that would not result in a situation of having people necessarily travelling to Wagga.
"Let's have some lateral thinking so Wagga people might come to Tumut for certain services; there are some tremendous possibilities to be innovative," she said, adding that Tumut was expecting major growth with private developers opening up new blocks and the town expanding.
It was a line also advanced by other speakers from the floor in Janelle Becker, Sue Swann and Brenda Broomhead, who spoke on potential for renal dialysis, a shire wide transport survey already undertaken, the opportunity to take advantage of new technology and "smaller cogs within larger cogs, as opposed to a hub and spoke" health service concept.
Ms Chapman said GSAHS did not use a hub and spoke concept, nor did it believe in putting all its eggs in one basket.
At the same time there were various levels of service appropriate to centres of varying size, from the smaller centres with childhood, accident and emergency and palliative facilities through to centres the size of Tumut, and larger centres such as Wagga.
"We have a tiered service, but the important thing is to keep it robust and keep as many services as possible close to you," she said.
Chairman of the Tumut Health Service Advisory committee and MC for the public meeting, Allan Tonkin, said the original hospital building had been built by the community, and progressively added to over many years.
"It has done a great job, but it is towards the end of its life.
"What we are doing is placing procedures in place so as when we get the green light it will go ahead quickly.
"We all know what we want to happen, but the first priority is maintaining the standard of the hospital's service delivery.
"You can't do much without staff and in that regard we are very fortunate."
Mr Tonkin said the major task for the public meeting was to review progress on the Health Service Plan announced six months ago.
"It should be remembered that of 35 recommendations, only seven or eight rely on capital for new equipment or facilities; the rest relate to staff and patient care," he said.
"This Service Plan is a road map on where we have to go and how long it will take to get somewhere."
He said the Health Service Advisory Committee would continue to meet bi-monthly and monitor progress with each of the recommendations.
With the completion and outcome of the facility review being a high priority a further public meeting will be called to present the architect's preliminary report in six to eight weeks time.
The Service Plan had recommended as part of the facility review that a site master plan be developed to include short and medium term solutions to shortfalls in the physical environment in the emergency department.
Whilst that report had not been completed within the March 2006 time-frame, the meeting was told work to improve security and access at both the hospital and Community Health was due for completion in July at a cost of $250,000.
Those funds were provided following a special Minor Works Program application by GSAHS, and were addressing some of the problems raised in the public arena, the public meeting was informed.
An architect employed by GSAHS told a public meeting in Tumut this week the current hospital grounds were sufficiently large to cater for a compact, purpose-built new hospital, while the existing facility could still operate during construction. The architect will be presenting a preliminary report to another public meeting in six-eight weeks as part of a facility review process, referred to on Tuesday as 'Step One".
June 2, 2006
Tumut & Adelong Times