Councillor calls for services to be retained at Kurri Kurri Hospital

Ward D Liberal councillor Rod Doherty, whose ward covers Kurri Kurri, says the community needs to get behind the hospital and make sure no services are lost.

In his pre-council role as Kurri Kurri District Business Chamber president, Cr Doherty lobbied for the new Lower Hunter hospital to be built near the Hunter Expressway at Loxford, which he says would have better serviced the booming population of Maitland's western suburbs and Cessnock's growth areas including Heddon Greta, Cliftleigh, Branxton, Greta and North Rothbury.

He fought until the foundation stone was laid at Metford, and since then has been advocating to make sure services are retained at Kurri Kurri.

An anonymous letter signed off by hospital staff that was recently circulated in the community said services including the emergency department, day care centre, operating theatre and allied health are under threat at Kurri Kurri when the new Maitland Hospital opens in 2022.

Hunter New England Health has repeatedly denied the hospital will close, and says no decision has been made about transitioning services from Kurri Kurri to the new Maitland Hospital.

Cr Doherty is calling on HNE Health to clear up the uncertainty, for the community's sake.

Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent is also concerned about the speculation, and plans to seek a meeting with HNE Health chief executive Michael DiRienzo to clarify plans for the hospital's future.

"While these may be rumours now, they won't go away until after the new Maitland Hospital is commissioned in 2022," Cr Doherty said.

"At this time it may be too late for many small hospitals like Kurri Kurri to survive the loss of services.

"If the Kurri community don't put up a fight it will be their problem come 2022.

"If you don't use it, you lose it.

"We need to maintain the momentum to get hospital services back to what we expect from Hunter New England Health - nothing less."

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HNE Health's executive director of Greater Metropolitan Health Services, Karen Kelly said she would like to reassure the community that Kurri Kurri Hospital is not closing.

"It has and will continue to play an important part in our network of health services," she said.

"While there have been suggestions that some services currently delivered at Kurri Kurri may transition to the new hospital when it opens in 2022, I can confirm that no decisions have been made about these services.

"As planning continues, we will keep our staff and the community informed."

Ms Kelly said arrangements have been finalised for after-hours medical support for the Kurri Kurri Hospital Rehabilitation Unit, which was also subject to recent rumours of impending closure after it had been unable to accept new patients due to a lack of on-call support.

"We are once again admitting patients to the unit with a view to returning it to full capacity as soon as possible," she said.

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Cr Pynsent will table a mayoral minute at this Wednesday's council meeting, asking that he and general manager Lotta Jackson seek an urgent meeting with Hunter New England Health chief executive Michael DiRienzo in order to clarify the future plans for Kurri Kurri Hospital.

"Kurri Kurri Hospital has been in operation since 1909, built by the community at the time and has been a foundation stone of our community through the generations," the mayoral minute states.

"Many documents and rumours persist regarding staff reallocation and the planned closure of Kurri Kurri Hospital after the new Maitland Hospital is opened.

"Our community was reassured during the location discussions of the new Maitland Hospital, that our health facilities would not be scaled back and Kurri Kurri Hospital would continue to offer health services to our community including rehabilitation services, surgical functions and a functional emergency department.

"The Kurri Kurri district community needs reassurance from Hunter New England Health that our hospital and its dedicated staff have a long-term future."

The meeting will be livestreamed on council's Facebook page from 6.30pm Wednesday night.