Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge the power of community fundraising and to simultaneously express my disappointment in the lack of government follow-through. I'm specifically referring to the Kempsey District Hospital hydrotherapy pool. Back in 1986, 30 local businesses raised over $150,000—a lot of money back then—to build a pool within the hospital. Since its installation the pool has been used by thousands of Macleay Valley residents. Unfortunately it closed in March 2020 due to COVID, coupled with the need for some maintenance.

For the past two years residents and patients have been calling for the hydrotherapy pool to be reopened. I've had meetings with local health district representatives to see what needs to be done to make this happen. I have continually been disappointed by the lack of departmental response. The patients that need the pool are now travelling over 50 kilometres to the nearest facility to receive treatment, and I've since been advised that participants on the NDIS are being forced to use their packages to the tune of hundreds of dollars a week—so, therefore, the taxpayer is now indirectly paying for a lesser service in the local district. The community have spoken. We need to listen. The LHD needs to listen, and it's time to get this thing reopened.