TAMWORTH has been labelled the worst in the state for specialist palliative services by a Sydney-based advocate who has taken her concern for the region to the health minister.
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Dr Yvonne McMaster is a retired palliative care doctor and in recent times has been an avid campaigner for boosting palliative services, and earned an OAM for her advocacy in 2014.
“I told the minister [Jillian Skinner] I was very concerned about Tamworth,” she said.
“I read her a part of [Tamworth local] Mitch Williams’ story about his mother’s experience, which was filled with pain and distress.
“It made an impression and she said she would look into Tamworth.”
Dr McMaster said there was one very good specialist who looked after the community in Tamworth and a doctor who focused on it at the hospital – but while “the care is wonderful, there’s not enough of it”.
Dr McMaster said Dubbo currently had four specialists and was pushing for two more in palliative care, but she said that was still nowhere near enough.
“We’re all going to die and the majority would like to do that in comfort,” she said on the need for better services.
“The dead can’t speak, the dying are too sick to speak, the carers are too busy and stressed to speak – and when someone has died, the family doesn’t want it raked through the newspapers,” she said as a pointer to why the sector was underfunded.
“We’re all going to die, but we don’t want to think about it,” Dr McMaster said.
In research handed over to the treasurer in 2013, Dr McMaster said the state government could save $140 million every year if palliative care was funded adequately at a cost of just over $26 million.
Dr McMaster said Tamworth would need at least 10 specialist nurses to be adequately serviced.
Lucy Haslam has joined Dr McMaster’s push for better palliative services in Tamworth.
She told The Leader “she’s an outsider that’s passionate about our area, then I think we should all get a bit more passionate here”.
