TAMWORTH’S ailing palliative care workforce has been targeted by the local MP, who wants to see a plan get off the ground to boost nursing numbers in end-of-life care in the region.
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State member Kevin Anderson wants to see a palliative care training program established to give nurses an option to move across into palliation.
“It’s developing a local workforce and gives opportunities to local nurses,” Mr Anderson told The Leader.
“It’s something I want to discuss further with Hunter New England Health (HNEH).”
Local advocates for better palliative services in Tamworth met with HNEH executives in mid-December where the local health district committed to recruiting an additional clinical nurse specialist to help with the shortage.
The introduction of the new permanent position has been widely welcomed, but health experts and local campaigners agree, there’s still a long way to go.
The Tamworth MP said offering a palliative care nurse training program was aimed at “developing local opportunities” and could go some way to negating the potential hurdle of availability.
“How many palliative care nurses are currently available?” Mr Anderson asked.
“If we need five in the region, are there five nurses ready to come here?”
One of Tamworth’s key advocates, Mitch Williams, has maintained Tamworth needs at least one full-time specialist physicians and up to five nurse to provide adequate care for the region.
“The more training and the more that’s being provided to the region, it can only be a good thing,” Mr Williams said.
Currently, patients receiving end-of-life care in the region have access to the Tamworth community nursing team and a palliative care clinical nurse consultant. HNEH said the community nursing team is made up of 10.4 full-time nurses.