Ms Quinn said she would be meeting Health Minister Brad Hazzard next month to push the case for funding for Orange.

“I’ve got it set for mid-August,” she said.

“The Minister for Health and I met with the Orange Push for Palliative group in June and listened to their reasons for why Orange needs palliative care right now.

“Their stories reflected a sentiment, which I’m sure is true for everyone in the community who has lost a loved one.

“I look forward to a solution for our community.”

Ms Quinn said she had personal experience of the current situation of dealing with palliative care patients in the acute Orange hospital when a relative was transferred from Parkes in May.

“My great aunt, Edie McMaster, who I was really close to, had aggressive late-stage cancer,” she said.

“The hospital does its best but it’s not enough,” she said.

Ms Quinn said her aunt’s husband had to sleep on a pull-out bed when he stayed with her near the end of her life.

“It’s not ideal, it’s not set up for that purpose,” she said.

Ms Quinn said it was an “essential service” for Orange.

“It was there in the old hospital, it was almost taken away by not being included in the new hospital,” she said.

Ms Quinn said the public-private scheme proposed for Orange, where four rooms would be allocated for all patients at the Dudley Private Hospital, seemed to work in Wagga Wagga and should be set up in Orange.

Mr Hazzard was due to give his response on funding to the palliative care group three weeks ago but is currently on leave.