ULONG Mountain Health Hub is about to expand with an additional treatment space and fit-out, fully funded through grants and numerous donations big and small from the local community.

No-one knows more how valuable the Health Hub up the mountain is, being 60-minutes drive out of Coffs Harbour, than Carol Cleary, a member of Eastern Dorrigo Community (Ulong) Hall and the Showground Committee, and the proprietor of Ulong Café.

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“Every week we hear someone in our community telling us how having the Health Hub here has helped them or a family member,” Carol told News Of The Area.

“And now we have all the funding in place to put a DA into Council, hopefully with no more than a six-week processing time and then the builder can start.”;

This expansion to the Health Hub at the Eastern Dorrigo Community Hall, which was opened on 14 April 2021, after a five-year journey of spreading awareness of the need and gaining funding, means a whole new treatment space will be added to complement the existing consultation room.

“Not only will we have the building but now we have the new funding to complete the fit out with essential air con and equipment.”

Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh recently visited the Health Hub to confirm $10,000 in funding from the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government.

“Gurmesh has been very supportive of the project all along,” said Carol.

“And we’ve had locals giving us $200 here and there, and one kind customer who donated a much larger sum for his own reasons.”

The local Lowanna builder is ready to go once DA approval gives him the green light.

The Mountain Health Hub in Ulong hall was established two years ago after the village was left without a doctor.

Through the energy of Carol and locals like her, the hub was built two years ago, to support the efforts of Registered Nurse Lisa from TAFE and her visiting trainee nurses who provided monthly health checks in the hall.

Through an arrangement between Dr Jay Ruthnam from Northside Health in Coffs Harbour, locals are now seen in their own home village on a monthly basis without the need to leave their community.

“We had a local just the other day saying how happy he is that we have the local hub, otherwise he would have had to move away from his home in the village, to be near medical facilities.”

Carol’s daughter Katie Sibio is eager for the new treatment room to be established.

Her dream now is to have pathology services available from the Ulong Health Hub.

“I have a young son who requires blood tests frequently,” Katie told NOTA.

“He’s really comfortable seeing Dr Ruthnam near his home and has built a lovely relationship with him and feels safe visiting him at the Hub.

“Last month he saw Dr Ruthnam and pathology had to be booked four days later in Coffs Harbour.

“With an hour-long journey down the mountain and then waiting to see a nurse not known to him, he was very frightened, and the procedure couldn’t happen.

“We had the long journey back home, only to repeat and try it again the next day when he was calmer,” said Katie.

“Having the ability to have this done at Ulong, in familiar surroundings would be wonderful for not only me, but every other parent on the mountain with children in need of pathology.”

By Andrea FERRARI