Gunnedah hospital, Mackellar clinic the subject of numerous meetings
Discussions are ongoing about the upgrade of the Gunnedah hospital and the reopening of the Mackellar Rural Health Centre.
Meetings involving relevant stakeholders were held on Friday morning for each of the health facilities to discuss the next steps.
Members of the Gunnedah hospital auxiliary, Gunnedah Shire Council, PRAMS and Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson spoke about spoke about what was needed in the clinical services planning stage of the upgrades.
Read also:
Mr Anderson said Hunter New England Health had started the process of consulting with doctors, hospital staff and others to determine these needs.
"[They] will be asking for feedback from the community in terms of what services the Gunnedah community believe should be delivered and/or acquired," he said.
"The people who were at the meeting ... will be going to their networks and people they know and starting to feed that back through. It's great to see the community want to be involved."
Mr Anderson pledged $53 million for the hospital as part of the 2019 state election.
When you're talking about building a new hospital you've got to go into every department and every angle of the hospital so it's a long way off yet.
Hospital auxiliary member Colleen Fuller
Hospital auxiliary member Colleen Fuller said she was "very happy" with how the meeting went.
"When you're talking about building a new hospital you've got to go into every department and every angle of the hospital so it's a long way off yet," Cr Fuller said.
"A lot of stuff is confidential so can't be talked about but it's all on track so far."
Mr Anderson also attended a meeting with representatives of the Mackellar Care Services group in helping to reopen the Mackellar Rural Health Centre.
There isn't anything new happening at this stage, but the local MP offered his support for anything the group needed.
"I said to Mackellar we're happy to support you in any way," he said.