Blue Mountains: Planning for single district hospital underway
Could this be the end for Katoomba Hospital as the local population pushes towards 83,600 people?
The Blue Mountains News
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Major development plans for a new, single hospital for the Blue Mountains are forging ahead as the local population pushes towards 83,600 people by 2041.
“We are consulting with the community, including health consumers, and with clinicians to help shape how we deliver health care in the future in the Blue Mountains,” a Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (NBMLHD) spokesman told The Blue Mountains News.
The NBMLHD’s Strategic Plan 2018-2023 says they will continue to advocate for a new, single hospital in the Blue Mountains with a clinical school to expand clinical experience options.
The health district’s spokesman declined to comment on a preferred location however, saying only that Katoomba Hospital “has grown over more than 90 years and served the community well.”
“But there is a need to consider how we can best deliver health care into the future,” he said.
“A focus on new digital technology is allowing us to explore multiple ways to deliver care for our community, in the home and at our hospitals.”
Latest Bureau of Health Information reveals Katoomba Hospital had 1651 admissions from July to September 2019, representing 1.5 per cent fewer admissions than July to September 2018.
Plus, there were 56 births compared to 47 in the 2018 quarter.
In emergency it’s taking longer and longer to be seen.
Between 2014-15 and 2018-19, the proportion of patients ‘seen on time’ declined from 74 to 71 per cent, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.
In 2018-19 a total of 4976 people presented to Katoomba Hospital’s emergency department with 90 per cent seen within one hour and 40 minutes, the same data shows.
The nearest teaching hospital, Nepean Hospital at Kingswood, is already undergoing a revamp, with a 14-storey tower currently under construction to meet population demand.
Nepean Hospital offers 520 beds but is 53 minutes’ drive from Katoomba Hospital, also known as Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital.
On social media Cathie Teresa asked, “Why not upgrade Katoomba, so it will once again have specialists and facilities (including maternity) so locals do not have to travel?”
Anne Pope said Katoomba Hospital is already centrally located and should be doubled in size and totally refurbished, to create “much needed” local jobs.
Blue Mountains state Labor MP Trish Doyle said it’s no use having a “fancy new building” in a new location if it is going to be “plagued with the same old issues”.
She said any new hospital must be well-resourced and well-staffed, with the capacity to provide quality care for the more than 80,000 people who live between Lithgow and Penrith.
The health district’s plan also flags the possibility of new community health centres, in the Blue Mountains and Penrith local government areas, close to patient’s homes.
The last major addition to Katoomba Hospital was a new $4.7 million community dialysis centre, opened last July, featuring six dialysis treatment spaces.
The 2019-20 budget for NBMLHD is over $873 million, an increase of more than $34 million on 2018-19.
The NBMLHD has entered a three year agreement with Western Sydney University to prioritise opportunities to address the health needs of the region by facilitating research partnerships, collaborating on program evaluations and improvement initiatives, with a particular focus on disadvantaged communities.
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s Blue Mountains population projections:
- Population to increase by 4,750 people between 2016 and 2041, from 78,850 to 83,600 people.
- Working age population (ages 15-64) to decrease from 49,250 people in 2016 to 46,350 in 2041.
- Kids aged 14 and under to decline from 14,750 in 2016 to 12,450 in 2041.
- People aged 65 and over to increase from 14,800 in 2016 to 24,800 by 2041.
Katoomba Hospital currently provides:
- Emergency services (24-hours a day).
- General inpatient services: Obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, general medicine, surgery, rehabilitation, geriatrics, palliative care.
- Support services: On-site pathology, medical imaging, a pharmacy.
- Allied health services: Occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, nutrition, dietetics, social work.
- Outpatient clinics/services: Hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, dental, antenatal, psychiatry, sexual health.