The Forbes Shire Council fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities Orange held last night was an outstanding success with a strong turn-out by locals.

“All funds raised on the evening will remain in Orange to directly support families from Forbes and other areas of the central and far west who come to stay at the house in Orange while seeking specialist and life-saving treatment for their baby, child or adolescent,” said Ronald McDonald House Media Representative Janice Harris.

“Since the house in Orange opened, 77 families from Forbes have stayed at no cost for a total of 301 nights,” Janice said.

“They have been supported with a range of services including emergency meals, toiletries, and new toys, activities and books for the child in hospital.”

In total, 838 families from the central and far west have stayed at the house in Orange for a total of 6,795 nights free of charge.

Wear Red Day began four years ago as an initiative of the Principal of Denison College in Bathurst, Ken Barwick.

“Can’t wait for 2022!”

Last week a new collaborative health care model built on a community-based response was launched for Forbes and other centres throughout the Central West.

Forbes will join other regions in the trial to find innovative solutions to local healthcare problems with an investment of $5 million from the Australian Government to support what the communities come up with. The other regions are Parkes, Tullamore, Trangie, Tottenham, Trundle, Canowindra, Snowy Valley and Wentworth.

Regional experts, including the NSW Rural Doctors Network, the Western NSW Local Health District and the Western NSW Primary Health Network are working closely with local councils, community and health professionals to design an innovative solution.

The difference with this approach to traditional health workforce solutions that focus on individual towns, is the focus will be on sub-regions to address healthcare access issues.

“By servicing multiple towns, there is an opportunity to achieve economies of scale, create sustainable practices and provide better access to primary health services for rural and remote Australians,” said Deputy Prime Minister and member for Riverina Michael McCormack at the launch.

“The aim is to demonstrate how new and flexible approaches can address workforce shortages in the bush and find sustainable ways of delivering services across a number of smaller, connected rural communities,” said Federal Regional Health Minister, Mark Coulton.

“The challenge of delivering health services in small communities is well known, and it is clear the existing one-size-fits-all approach isn’t working for everyone.” The CEO of the Rural Doctors Network, Richard Colbran agreed, and believes the days of a doctor settling into a town for 40 years were gone.

“The aim with the new model would be to get doctors to stay for at least five years,” said Richard.

“That would allow patients to build a relationship with their GP.”

The Western NSW Local Health District will start providing COVID-19 vaccinations to its staff from Monday, 22 March rolling out across the region.

“The Australian Government has developed a schedule that will see the most at-risk groups receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible,” said Western NSW Local Health District Chief Executive Scott McLachlan.

“Phase 1a includes healthcare workers who work in areas such as emergency departments and intensive care units. It also includes aged care residents, including those living in our Multipurpose Service (MPS) facilities. Phase 1b includes all other healthcare workers.

“For our healthcare workers, we will have fixed clinics in Orange and Dubbo taking bookings from 22 March, with the Bathurst clinic opening the following day.”

Additionally, there will also be two mobile clinics in operation from 22 March that will visit all the smaller health facilities over the coming weeks.

The vaccination requires two injections at least twelve weeks apart, so those clinics will be booking staff in for both their appointments.

“Our clinics will be providing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Both the current vaccines are very effective, and Oxford/AstraZeneca offers advantages for our District given the challenges of distance,” said Mr. MacLachlan.

“I would encourage people to use the Australian Government’s online eligibility checker to see when and how they can access vaccination.

“This is a really exciting development. Our staff, and our communities have, had been incredible in taking action to minimise the spread of COVID-19, and we all want the vaccination program to be a success,” he said.

“We’re fortunate to have the vaccine available and it will be a relief for our healthcare workers to have this extra layer of protection.”