Paul Toole has asked for an assurance the Panorama Clinic specialist mental health unit won't be moved to Orange for two years during the upcoming Bathurst Hospital redevelopment.
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The Member for Bathurst says he has heard from people within the health department the clinic will shift to Bloomfield during the $200 million building work.
The Western NSW Local Health District, meanwhile, has told ACM that "if temporary changes are required to the way we deliver services, including the Panorama Clinic, they will be determined after thorough planning and consultation is completed".
Mr Toole said the plan from the beginning for the hospital redevelopment had been for all services on the Bathurst Hospital grounds to remain there during the works.
In a press release last year about the release of the concept design for the project, for instance, Health Infrastructure said that "work to build the expanded health facility will be carefully staged to ensure clinical services remain operational during construction".
"If you're going to move a mental health service to Orange, it's going to impact on 20 staff here who will have to travel every day," Mr Toole said.
"You are also going to see patients who are suffering from mental health conditions probably not taking up the service, therefore they'll slip through the gaps and not get the appropriate care they should receive.
"These are the people who are probably in a really dark place from time to time and just to have the model of care here is critical for everybody involved.
"We're just asking NSW Health to honour what they have said."
Mr Toole said he had written to Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Mark Spittal and to the NSW Minister for Health about his concerns.
Health's say
In a statement, a Western NSW Local Health District spokesperson said planning for the NSW Government's $200 million Bathurst Hospital redevelopment is underway.
"This redevelopment will deliver a new, modern, non-acute mental health inpatient unit, Panorama Clinic, alongside a mix of new and refurbished areas including an expanded emergency department and maternity service," the spokesperson said.
"If temporary changes are required to the way we deliver services, including the Panorama Clinic, they will be determined after thorough planning and consultation is completed.
"The community can be assured that staff, patients, consumers, and the broader community will be kept updated throughout the redevelopment."
And the staff?
Bathurst Regional councillor and Bathurst Health Services Action Group member Warren Aubin said he shared Mr Toole's worries.
"To actually tell somebody from Bathurst that's a walk-in patient to the Panorama Clinic that you've got to turn around and go to Orange, it won't happen," he said.
"So you're going to have these people out in the community who are needing help that can't actually get it here locally.
"It's a bad situation."
He said he would want to know what would happen to the Panorama Clinic staff: whether they would be transferred or redeployed or whether there would be another plan.
"The other thing is, there's talk of Panorama Clinic going, but what other services are they thinking of moving?" he asked.
"Do the people of Bathurst need to be worried?"
