AN Orange councillor is appalled and embarrassed a hospital the size of Orange’s has no designated palliative care unit.
Cr Glenn Taylor will put a motion to the next meeting of Orange City Council calling on his fellow councillors to support his bid to lobby for a palliative care unit at the hospital.
Cr Taylor said he also wanted to launch a petition, after a close family member died in Orange hospital.
“My relatives came up from the south coast and they used to live in Orange,” he said.
“Our family was told in no uncertain terms that our family member would possibly have to pass away in a ward with other people.
“Thankfully at the end a private room was found for them, but it is a juggling act for staff.”
Cr Taylor and his family were full of praise for the staff at Orange hospital, who were trying to do their best to help dying patients and their families.
“They are too scared to speak out, and so are families who are often so distressed and full of grief,” he said.
“I want to be the voice for those people.”
Cr Taylor emphasised he was not politicising the issue.
“This is about compassion, not about politics, and for people who have worked all their life and paid their taxes they deserve more when they are dying,” he said.
“Anyone who tries to justify why we don’t have a designated palliative care area of the hospital, in my opinion, has a cold, black heart.”
He said the fact one of the medical wards that accommodated palliative care patients was shut down, and remained closed, was a bitter pill to swallow.
The 10-bed ward was shut down in May last year, when the Western NSW Local Health District was under pressure to rein in costs after a budget blowout.
The ward’s staff were allocated to other areas of the hospital, or to smaller hospitals in the area.
It sparked an outcry from the NSW Nurses Associatio, who rallied staff outside the hospital and lobbied member for Orange Andrew Gee.
Cr Taylor believes there has been no progress in the provision of hospice-style beds at Orange hospital for 20 years.
“At least at the old hospital there was a designated area for two patients and their families,” he said.
“I reckon if I walked down Summer Street today and asked people if there was a designated palliative care area at Orange hospital, everyone would just assume there is and would be shocked to find out that is not the case,” he said.
