There is, however, no plan to reduce the services offered to the community or the capacity of the service’s aged-care facility.
REDHS chief executive officer Karen Laing, speaking at the Community Chat breakfast at Rochester Cafe on Thursday, said rumours of the services offered by REDHS being reduced, or the numbers of its Yalukang aged-care service being cut, were untrue.
She explained to the strongly invested group that works on the restoration of the service had started and, aside from a hiccup with the exterior cladding of the hospital’s general wing, were continuing on schedule.
Further investigation of the stage one works, and what was included within the insurance scope of works, meant the hospital CEO had to secure funding from another source to continue works on the general wing of the hospital.
“That funding is now secure and the re build has started,” Ms Laing said.
“We are really working hard to restore the facility and everyone can be assured that our aged-care facility is definitely coming back.”
She quashed rumours of the aged-care facility being reduced from 59 residents to a substantially smaller number, but did say the facility would operate at about 50 per cent when it first re-opened.
“Our residents are all safe and being cared for by our staff,” she said.
“We had 59 residents when we evacuated and some of those, like many members of the wider community, have permanently relocated and will not coming back to Rochester.
“When we first re open we will operate at about 50 per cent. There are currently 28 residents on our books who are planning to come back.
“There are another 11 who reserve the right to come back, but it will take some years for us to get back to where we were (numbers wise).”
Ms Laing said everyone who wanted to come back to Rochester would have a place.
She said a clinical services plan was being completed to see what was required for the provision of services to the area for the next 15 years.
“The government is not going to spend $30 million on a restoration project that doesn’t serve the community in the future, hence our plans are future focussed,” she said.
Ms Laing said the primary care building would be completed, the facility that includes the GP practice and allied care services.
“That is the building which had the cladding problem. The supply department is second, enabling services such as the kitchen and laundry to be up and running before we have patients and residents back on site, then the aged-care facility represents the final two stages,” she said.
“The whole contract is two years and several of these will overlap.”
Ms Laing said REDHS was already bringing some services, that had been operating in Elmore, back to Rochester.
Some of those services will operate out of the community house, while REDHS has entered into a partnership with Rochester’s Mackay St gym for the provision of its exercise groups services.