Monday, 14 March 2016
MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has invited Inverell and district residents to a public meeting later this month to bring the community up do date with the progress on planning for the $30 million Inverell Hospital redevelopment.
Mr Marshall said open invitations would be hitting people’s mailboxes this week and he was looking forward to a large crowd attending the meeting on the evening of Tuesday, 29 March.
“The purpose of the meeting is to provide the community with an update on the redevelopment, the completed Clinical Services Plan and give people a chance to ask questions and provide feedback, which will guide the next stages,” Mr Marshall said.
“I’ve always said that I want the community to be very involved in this redevelopment – we only get one shot at this redevelopment and I want to ensure we get it right.
“This redevelopment will be designed to meet the health needs of Inverell community well into the future and to help with that we need to people to get involved.
“From the time our community campaign was launched again over 18 months ago, I have worked hard to ensure that not only has the $30 million funding commitment been locked into future state budgets but planning for the upgrade has proceeded as quickly as possible.”
Mr Marshall said the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural and Regional Health Sarah Mitchell, Hunter New England Health Chief Executive Michael DiRienzo, Inverell Hospital services manager Hamish Yeates and members of the planning team would also be at the meeting.
“It is important that these key figures in the process understand how important this issue is to the general public and I would love to see a big crowd there so they are reliably informed as to the progress of the redevelopment,” he said.
“Often with projects of this scale, and I’ve been through this with Armidale, there is a big period where the community don’t see anything happening.
“It’s human nature when people don’t see anything happening they assume the worst. That’s just not the case and with projects like this one, we want to plan them well so we get maximum value.
The public meeting will be held at the Inverell Town Hall from 6-8pm on 29 March. People attending are asked RSVP to Mr Marshall’s office on 6772 5552 or northerntablelands@parliament.nsw.gov.au