Cumberland Council push for Westmead palliative care, Auburn Hospital upgrade
Fed up with western Sydney residents being unable ‘to die with dignity’, a mayor is ramping up a fight to reinstate a palliative care unit at the Southern Hemisphere’s busiest hospital.
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Cumberland Council is ramping up a fight to reinstate the palliative care unit at Westmead Hospital and attacked the State Government for neglecting local health resources despite demanding it meet “aggressive housing targets”.
The council must supply a “mind boggling” 28,000 extra dwellings in the next 20 years but
Mayor Steve Christou wants the government to match the services for the population explosion by reopening the palliative care ward at Westmead Hospital, as well as increase funding for more doctors and nurses at Westmead and Auburn hospitals, and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
“I firmly believe that if the State Government want to mandate aggressive housing targets for our council, to reach that, they must provide this council with the appropriate funding and infrastructure to support this,’’ Cr Christou said.
“Currently it is clear that the hospitals servicing Cumberland City Council residents are run-down and only have partial capacity to support certain illnesses and conditions with many of our residents having to be transferred to another hospital outside the LGA when they become ill.
“Hospitals in western Sydney have been systematically run down, under-resourced and therefore unable to provide a full suite of medical services to the Cumberland City community.’’
Cr Christou, who has initiated an online petition calling for health upgrades, slammed Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s failure to reopen the palliative care unit at Westmead — the Southern Hemisphere’s largest hospital, despite services operating on the north shore.
The dedicated ward at Westmead has been overlooked in the 2020-21 NSW Budget, which allocates $56 million funding boost for palliative care.
“The fact that there is not a dedicated palliative care unit in this precinct disgraceful and in my view, not good enough for our community.
“Western Sydney residents deserve dignity when they’re nearing the end of life.
“For too long western Sydney has been forgotten in the area of health and it is the people and our community that suffer.’’
Westmead’s palliative care ward closed in 2009 and relocated to a seven-bed oncology ward. Despite Westmead’s $1 billion redevelopment, it failed to reopen the dedicated palliative care ward.
Cr Christou said the petition would be directed to Mr Hazzard and Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
However in March, Mr Hazzard said he would direct the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) to investigate the possibility of a dedicated palliative care ward.
A WSLHD spokeswoman defended its hospitals’ services for dying patients.
“Across Western Sydney Local Health District hospitals we have excellent palliative care specialist clinicians to support patients requiring care in hospital where this is needed,’’ she said.
“Palliative and supportive care continues to be provided at Westmead Hospital, where an extensive $3.8 million refurbishment to the cancer and haematology ward was completed in 2017.
“Under the refurbishment the ward was remodelled to create more single rooms, ensuring the area is suitable and appropriate for both cancer and palliative care patients.”
The health service has also partnered with palliative care provider Silver Chain to “meet changing community expectations’’ that has delivered free, in-home care for more than 2500 dying patients since July 2017.
The spokeswoman said Auburn Hospital’s expenses allocation in the 2020-21 budget was $103.8 million, a $2.6 million increase from the previous financial year.
● Sign the petition here
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