Katungal Aboriginal Corporation and Community and Medical Services will hold a community meeting at Moruya Showground tomorrow in a desperate bid to prevent its closure.
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Katungal CEO Damien Matcham is blaming a broken promise made by the Department of Health and Ageing Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health for the economic woes which may see them close the Moruya clinic and transfer staff to their Narooma clinic.
“Katungal was promised recurrent funding for staffing and operational costs for the Moruya clinic, but it is now 2011 and it hasn’t been provided,” he said.
“We only ever ended up receiving one-off funding for lease costs for 12 months and four computers. Someone is getting rich with the money provided by the department, but it is not us.
“All the talk about closing the gap is just spin and talk,” he said of the Federal Government’s program aimed at reducing the gap between the life expectancies of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
There are Katungal Clinics in Moruya, Narooma and Bega, and Mr Matcham says he has had to take funding from the Narooma clinic to keep the Moruya clinic going.
He is now turning to the community for help.
“We are asking the community for their support to keep the Moruya clinic open,” Mr Matcham said.
“If we don’t get support and the required funding, we will have no choice but to close the clinic.”
The community meeting and barbecue will be held at Moruya Showground from 12.30pm to 2.30pm tomorrow.
