It's taken many years and much heartache but it looks as though Pambula Hospital now has a permanent place in our community.
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The signs have returned proudly announcing it is Pambula Hospital, not a clinic, not a centre, but a hospital.
It will complement and operate in conjunction with the South East Regional Hospital (SERH) to provide medical help for those who can't get to a GP because there isn't one, they can't get an appointment or it's a weekend.
Most of these are not issues if you live in the city but we don't and that means we need to look at our problems from a different perspective. It is something that the Pambula Hospital Community Engagement Committee, under the excellent guidance of Les Stahl, did for several years as they wrestled with various options.
It has been well known for many years that the majority of people turning up at an emergency department are not walking in with life threatening problems and this has been borne out by the figures from Pambula. Since December 2018 nurse practitioners have attended to 1982 patients, with 173 referred to SERH for higher-level treatment.
That is 1800 patients cared for, some of whom may have waited for hours had they gone to SERH because the emergency department was rightly prioritising more serious cases.
They didn't have to wait for hours and once in front of the nurse practitioner there was not the time pressure that is ever present for GPs because it is a nurse-led model, not a time-based one.
Behind the success community advocates for the hospital and particularly the tireless president of Save Our Hospital (SOHI) Sharon Tapscott, have lobbied to see Pambula Hospital retain a place in the community.
We cannot forget there was a time when it looked as though the hospital could be closed.
She said that it had been an outstanding success for the community and the health service and the data collected had ensured that the service became a permanent one.
"This is all very good news and it is my greatest hope that this good news continues and that SOHI will continue its watching brief until such time as the community is satisfied with the service and facilities offered at our local hospital," Ms Tapscott said.
Just a month ago 12 patients returned to the refurbished hospital
