CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr GEE (Calare) (09:36): I rise today to celebrate a wonderful new community initiative in the Central West, the official launch of the Friends of Bathurst Hospital. Hospitals can be daunting, confusing and stressful places for anyone to navigate. This fantastic new group has been established to completely change that experience, bringing a warm, welcoming and deeply local touch to the health service for patients, staff, visitors and families alike.
Their very first initiative is the rollout of the Wayfinder program. Wayfinders will act as a friendly face, helping people find their way through the busy corridors, answering simple questions and, crucially, easing the anxiety that so often comes with a hospital visit. Volunteer coordinator Sylvia Gore so beautifully put it: Our health service and its staff do such important work caring for our community every single day, and the Friends of Bathurst Hospital is an opportunity for people to support that work but also help look after one another too.
Sylvia's tireless passion and dedication have truly brought this vision to life. Of course, great community movements require a strong team, and Sylvia has been brilliantly supported along the way by Bathurst Health Service general manager, Jo Holden, along with Jen Coote and Gabrielle Nicholls. They have been a brilliant support to the formation of this group.
I want to say a big thank you to outgoing Rotary Club of Bathurst Daybreak president, Craig Ronan, for his leadership over the past 12 months and offer my congratulations to incoming president Erik Mol. The members of the Rotary Club of Bathurst Daybreak generously donated $1,000 to the Friends of Bathurst Hospital, which will help provide uniforms and other essentials and will get the Wayfinders on the hospital floor.
Looking ahead, the long-term vision for the Friends of Bathurst Hospital is incredibly inspiring. In the future, Sylvia hopes to see the program expand to offer dedicated support, care and accommodation for dementia patients and their families. She also plans to engage medical, nursing and allied health students, giving them a unique opportunity to assist local patients while gaining invaluable 'community credits' for their participation.
This initiative proves once again that the spirit of community care is alive and well in Bathurst. I encourage anyone with a bit of spare time and a passion for helping others to answer the call, step forward and volunteer for this brilliant cause. Thank you, Sylvia, and thank you to the Friends of Bathurst Hospital.
The Bathurst community is lucky to have you. We also thank all of those who are supporting the Friends of Bathurst Hospital, including our wonderful friends at the Rotary Club of Bathurst Daybreak and, as I have previously mentioned, the team at Bathurst Health Service, led by Joe Holden. We are very grateful for the formation of this community group, and we wish Sylvia and the volunteers all the best for their work ahead.