Things got a little heated at Tuesday night's feedback session about changes to patient accommodation at Canberra Hospital.
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Workshop facilitators were in Bega to gauge the community's reaction to news the current residential accommodation services are to be demolished next year as part of a $500million upgrade to the Canberra Hospital.
At this stage there is no stated plan to replace the well utilised services, with Communication Link tasked by ACT Health to gather feedback at a number of sessions this week.
They were in Goulburn Tuesday morning before Bega's evening session, then again in Batemans Bay on Wednesday. An online survey is also available, with more than 400 responses already received.
At Bega, the feedback was overwhelmingly one-directional, with a replacement facility, on site, the only acceptable result for many.
In the room were Bega Valley residents who have previously used the accommodation services, their partners and carers, as well as other stakeholders including local GPs who have referred patients to Canberra Hospital.
On nearly everyone's lips were the sentiments "I don't know what I would've done without the facility" and that the only way forward was for ACT Health to implement a replacement for the building that is scheduled for demolition in late 2020.
The residential service provides cheap accommodation only metres from the hospital's main entrance.
For Edna Duncanson and her husband Ray, the facility has proved vital, including just last week.
Ms Duncancson had a cancerous tumour removed from under her tongue in June when she spent two weeks at TCH. Ray and their daughter were constant visitors, "living" across the road while caring for her during this time.
"You've got to look at this from the point of view of the carers, not just the patients," Ms Duncanson said.
"The nursing staff do a a great job, but what carers do relieves them to help others.
"I didn't get out of bed for four days and because they had to break my jaw and remove half of my tongue, I couldn't talk," she said.
"Ray brought over a whiteboard and pens so we could communicate."
"And she ran the pens out," Ray added with a chuckle (perhaps not surprising for anyone who knows Edna!).
They said the proximity of the accommodation to the hospital proper was vital, with 24-hour kitchen facilities a close second.
"Some complain that the facility is getting old -- they are and it's basic, but it has all you need," Ms Duncanson said.
Ms Duncanson has to return to TCH for a six-week course of radiation - which only lasts half an hour a day but requires a dose every day.
"There are no motels close by, and even if there were, you've got to get yourself back to a motel and certainly by the end of this treatment you can't be driving yourself to Narrabundah and back."
Feedback session facilitator Ellen Sauels said that all comments and post-it notes with issues were going to be collated into a discussion paper to be presented to Canberra Health Services as they look ahead to the 2020 hospital redevelopment.
While there was plenty of brainstorming about potential interim measures and long-term solutions, the vast majority said nothing short of a replacement accommodation facility on the hospital site was worth exploring.
To take the online survey, click here