Tara Moriarty, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, said that she is in favour of retaining the Kenmore Hospital's 12-bed Ron Hemmings Centre, one of the city's key mental health facilities.
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"There are proposals to cut down mental health jobs around the district. We are paying close attention to the suggested closure of Ron Hemmings unit to see that such a service is not lost to the community," she told the Goulburn Post during her visit to the city.
"We are waiting to see the next steps of the government in this matter. I have met members of the community and talked to families of those who use the facility and they are keen to keep the service."
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She further said the expansion of mental health service is required in the area since people from across the district benefit from it.
In 2020, patients at the mental health unit were moved out for three weeks while a review was being undertaken. Initially, the proposal was to move them for six months.
The decision was taken after Goulburn MP Wendy Tuckerman said she secured the undertaking in a meeting with Southern NSW Local Health District mental health director, Damien Eggleton.
The Health District had said that the review is not about the facility's future but patient safety and the model of care. It was triggered after an "incident" at the facility and was a holistic study that would look at mental health services more broadly and how they could be improved.
Meanwhile, Tara Moriarty was accompanied by Ryan Park, Shadow Minister for Health and Housing and Homelessness on her visit to Goulburn today and met Health Services Union (HSU) organiser Mark Jay and discussed about the Southern NSW Health District's staff restructure.
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