The Upper Hunter Shire Council will meet next Monday to determine the future of Gummun Place, a 16-bed aged care home in Merriwa, 300km north-west of Sydney.
The Council wrote to the Federal Government last year warning the home is losing $400,000 a year and has since approached 160 larger operators to take over the facility – without success.
Councillor, Upper Hunter Shire Council
Councillor Troy Stolz told The Weekly SOURCE the Council is now weighing two main options: converting the home into independent living units (ILUs) so residents can receive home care in situ, or repurposing the 2,500sqm site as a health hub using prefabricated buildings.
Troy said staffing remains a chronic challenge, with local mines out-paying aged care roles, and acknowledged the Council has made serious management mistakes at the facility.
“We only have a 16-bed facility, and so the economies of scale aren’t very good,” he said. “But you tell that to the 16 residents and their families and they’ll chew your head off. It’s a massively important operation in the ecosystem of aged care out here in Merriwa, and we’re an ageing population.”
He criticised the Federal Government’s approach to rural services, noting Mercy Aged Care at Singleton closed earlier this year without intervention.
“The government could have stepped in. They didn’t. And now at Gummun Place, they could have stepped in,” he said. “If we can fund AUKUS, surely we can fund and support rural aged care.”
Troy said it would be “disastrous” if the site did not remain open as either independent living or aged care.
