‘Support our hospital’

Auxiliary members want the public to know the hospital is still running and is currently going through a number of improvements. 

On top of this Pambula Hospital was recently ranked second out of all the hospitals in NSW with regards to falls prevention and its preventative measures are constantly improving. 

Thanks to the fundraising from the Auxiliary the hospital was recently able to purchase a Vital Statistics and Falls Monitor. The machine, which cost around $12,000, will enable nurses to closely monitor patients at a high risk of falling with the machine alerting nurses when an incident might occur. 

Pambula Hospital acting nurse manager Sue Berry said they wouldn’t have been able to purchase the device without the ongoing support of the Auxiliary. 

“This is only the second purchase of this machine in all of Australia, we are really ahead of the game,” she said. 

Ms Berry will in Sydney this Friday, to give a presentation at the Australian and New Zealand Falls Prevention Network Forum.

“I’ll be talking about the measures that helped us go from having a real falls problem three or four years ago to having hardly any falls, and the falls we get now are minor,” Ms Berry said. 

With the recent opening of the South East Regional Hospital, the Pambula Hospital Emergency Department was closed and replaced by a nurse run Assessment Treatment and Care Centre. The hospital is also in the planning stages of a $1.6million refurbishment. 

“We see lots of uses for Pambula Hospital and are positive about its future,” general manager of Bega Valley Health Service, Heather Austin said. 

But Pambula Auxiliary member Barbara Davy is worried that if the public stops using the hospital it will be on the chopping block. 

“I strongly believe that if the statistics go down, they might look at closing it, we have to use it or lose it,” Ms Davy said.