Contract for specialist palliative care service in Western Sydney set to end

Not-for-profit organisation Silverchain is expected to tell staff they will be out of a job from July with the Minns government refusing to extend its contract.

A hundred healthcare workers in Western Sydney are set to lose their jobs due to the Minns government’s cuts to palliative care, with a specialist 24/7 care service about to end.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the government will move palliative care services in Western Sydney in house when not-for-profit organisation Silverchain’s government contract expires, almost eight years since it started providing specialist 24/7 care allowing patients to spend their final days in comfort at home.

NSW Health has refused to say whether it will offer the same service or hire more staff to pick up the load.

Silverchain staff are expected to be told on Tuesday that its funding is about to dry up, meaning they will be without a job from July. The organisation has received $81 million over seven years for its services.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Silverchain was in talks with the then-Coalition government about extending the contract, after former Premier Dominic Perrottet announced an extra $650 million in operational funding for palliative care in his last budget.

Health Minister Ryan Park has acknowledged that planned funding for palliative care would have been higher under the Coalition. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The organisation was expecting the contract to be extended until the Minns government ripped out $249 million for palliative care over the next four years.

Now NSW Health is planning to move palliative care services “in house,” putting further pressure on an already-stretched health network.

The Telegraph was told there would be “no loss of service continuity” when Silverchain’s contract expires.

Mr Park said patients “will continue to receive high quality palliative care” when Silverchain’s contract ends. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“Patients can be assured they will continue to receive high quality palliative care,” Health Minister Ryan Park said in response to questions.

Silverchain’s service has helped some 8,300 patients spend their final days in as much comfort as possible at home, including Renee Gobbo’s mother Robyn Fry.

Ms Fry, who had bowel cancer, went into palliative care at home in October 2022.

Renee and Matt Gobbo, and daughter Sienna Atkinson, 17, in the room where she cared for her dying mum, in Oakhurst. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“Mum’s wish to me was to spend her last days with me in my and my husband’s home and we wouldn’t have been able to do that without the service from Silverchain,” Ms Gobbo said.

The service set up a bed for Ms Fry and Ms Gobbo’s Oakhurst home and arranged transport home. Doctors and nurses were available around the clock.

“There were a few days where I had to call them at 2am when a catheter came out or a colostomy bag broke or we didn’t have enough pain medication,” Ms Fry said.

“I don’t think I would have been able to continue helping her and fulfil her wish if we didn’t have that back up.”

Robyn Fry (left), who received palliative care in her home in 2022. Daughter Renee Gobbo (right) said the Silverchain service allowed her to fulfil her mother’s wishes. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

The Telegraph previously revealed that the Minns government slashed funding to palliative care in its first budget, including by halving funding for hospitals providing end-of-life care to terminally ill kids.

Mr Park has refused to accept that the change in funding is a “cut” but has conceded funding over the next four years would have been higher under the Coalition.

Liberal Health spokesman Matt Kean said the cuts meant people “will be at risk of not getting the care they need”.

“This is the real impact of Chris Minns’ cuts to palliative care,” he said.

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