NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Bega MP Andrew Constance have urged the Eurobodalla Shire community to cast aside parochialism as the campaign for a new regional hospital was given a multi-million dollar boost on Wednesday.
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During a visit to Moruya on Wednesday, October 31, the Premier announced $150 million in funding to build a new health facility in the shire.
Speaking at Moruya’s Historic Quarry Park, Ms Berejiklian said work would now focus on devising a suitable location for the development.
“We’re looking forward to the community having feedback on where it should be exactly located, and we’re looking forward to getting cracking in the next few years to building this new facility,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The community can feel confident we’re going to build this hospital because we’ve built so many new hospitals in rural and regional NSW and it’s time for the Eurobodalla to have it’s own major health facility.”
Mr Constance said the first sod could be turned within several years and urged to community to work together during the planning stage.
“We will form a community reference group which will be formed by the medicos to work through some of the issues ahead,” he said.
“We have patients travelling thousands of kilometres for services that really should be here in the shire, so I’d ask everybody to remember that point. It’s all about the services, forget the location.”
“This shire hospital will complement the South East Regional Hospital in Bega.
“One of the key things people will ask is where it's going to be and how it’s going to be built, but the $150 million will build it.
“This is a shire hospital for communities from Narooma to Batemans Bay and all the villages that surround the major town centres, including Moruya. We’re going to do this well.”
When asked if the funding was an election promise or a long-term commitment, Mr Constance said work to develop a new hospital was already underway after the state government allocated $500,000 towards planning in October 2017.
However, both Mr Constance and Ms Berejiklian did not wish to pinpoint an exact location for the development.
“It will be great to work on a location which is close to utilities, emergency services,” Mr Constance said.
“We’ve got to find a very substantial-sized site because of the need to build a facility which can be built on in 50 years’ time.
“We don’t want land-locked sites that we’ve experienced currently.”
Mr Constance said it was yet to be determined if the existing hospital sites at Batemans Bay and Moruya would be maintained once the new hospital was open to the public.
