Weddin Shire Council met with the Member for the Riverina, the Hon. Michael McCormack prior to the caretaker period to discuss the community’s top priority to see funding for the Grenfell Multipurpose Service and Community Health for new facilities and additional health and aged care services.

Weddin Shire Council continues to advocate and support the Health Council to lobby the Federal and State Governments for these facilities and additional services to meet the growing needs in our community.

Weddin Shire Council's General Manager Noreen Vu said the ABS data shows that our population is ageing, and this was also recently confirmed with the Rural Doctors Network (RDN) who looked at the Weddin Local Government Area compared with our counterparts in the Central West.

The RDN confirmed that more than 31% of our population was over the age of 65 and that Weddin LGA had a higher health need when compared to those across the Central West due to our ageing population, higher proportion of strokes or lung conditions.

"Council will continue to work with all parties involved to push for better rural and regional health outcomes and to allow residents to access services closer to home," Ms Vu said.

Member for the Riverrina, Michael McCormack said he was delighted to attend a productive meeting with the Weddin Council and Health Council in Grenfell recently to discuss health care in the region, particularly the lack of progress in the proposed redevelopment of the Grenfell Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) to improve aged care capacity for the Shire.

“This followed a successful meeting I initiated in Parliament House between Weddin Health Council members, Chair Peter Moffitt OAM and Peter Spedding, [former] Weddin Shire Mayor Craig Bembrick and the office of Regional Health Minister Emma McBride to impress the health care situation in the area," Mr McCormack said.

“The Health Council has told me the MPS has been on the Western Local Health District’s annual list of capital investment priorities for several years but has not been funded.

“I have been working with the Weddin Health Council, along with my office, and have identified some funding opportunities that may be of assistance.

“I have also written to Minister McBride to highlight the community’s distress over the Grenfell MPS not being redeveloped and not meeting the district’s increasing residential aged care needs," Mr McCormack said.

“The community’s older residents are an important part of the fabric that makes the Weddin Shire such a wonderful place in which to live. They need and, indeed, deserve the best care possible in their senior years in the community they call home.

“I was pleased to lobby for and deliver the Grenfell Medical Centre through the Coalition Government’s Building Better Regions Fund, which was officially opened on 3 May 2019, but I know there is always more work to do," he said.

"This is why I will continue to work with State Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke to do all I can to improve the health care and aged care outcomes of Weddin Shire communities.”