Regional communities will benefit from a $98.3 million health services boost to support local and visiting frontline health workers as part of a record investment into more health services and infrastructure in the bush.
\nPremier Dominic Perrottet, Deputy Premier Paul Toole, Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor and Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced three new initiatives which aim to attract more health workers to regional NSW and support rural and regional patients who need to travel to access care.
\nThe initiatives, which are part of the NSW Government\u2019s recently announced $500 million package, include:<\/p>\n
Mr Perrottet said this additional investment would help\u00a0ensure\u00a0people in rural and regional areas\u00a0have\u00a0access to\u00a0the best\u00a0health care\u00a0possible,\u00a0no matter where they lived.
\n\u201cHealth challenges can be tough enough without adding the burden of distance to a care\u00a0plan, and\u00a0that\u2019s why we\u2019ve set aside an additional\u00a0$23 million\u00a0to\u00a0help\u00a0address this,\u201d Mr Perrottet said.
\n\u201cThe NSW Government\u2019s focus has always been ensuring rural and regional communities get their share of health upgrades \u2013 and this latest announcement builds on the $900 million regional and rural health infrastructure spend in 2021-22.\u201d
\nMr Toole said a key component of the investment boost was securing more modern and sustainable accommodation for essential health workers which will also generate construction jobs in the regions.
\n\u201cWe know how important it is to ensure there is adequate and modern accommodation close to our health facilities in regional and rural communities that caters for locums, student placements and other visiting medical and nursing staff.
\n\u201cThis funding builds on the $30 million package for health worker housing I recently announced for the Hunter and Western NSW and extends the package to more than $75 million with intended benefits to communities in Broken Hill, Balranald, Cooma, Crookwell and Griffith,\u201d Mr Toole said.
\n\u201cThe package also includes new regional scholarships to encourage young people from the bush to pursue a career in health care closer to home, caring for their communities.\u201d
\nMrs Taylor said the investment will also go towards supporting patients who need to travel long distances to access specialist care.
\n\u201cAs a registered nurse from the bush, I know firsthand how important it is that patients feel supported when having to travel away from home and their support networks for care,\u201d Mrs Taylor said.
\n\u201cLiving in rural and regional NSW shouldn\u2019t affect the care you receive, and this package delivers on all fronts \u2013 ensuring we have the health workforce, infrastructure and support we need.\u201d
\nMr Hazzard said the investment will help regional and rural health facilities provide upgraded or refurbished accommodation which is fit for purpose.
\n\u201cThere are many and varied challenges in attracting and retaining health staff to the regions and it is an issue nationwide, not just in New South Wales,\u201d Mr Hazzard said.
\n\u201cOur Government continues to look at and address those barriers such as providing modern accommodation and tackling the limited availability of leased residential property for health workers in various regions, including southern NSW.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Regional communities will benefit from a $98.3 million health services boost to support local and visiting frontline health workers as part of a record investment into more health services and infrastructure in the bush. Premier Dominic Perrottet, Deputy Premier Paul Toole, Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor and Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced three new initiatives … Continue reading “Service boost for regional healthcare”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}