Cancer centre opens its doors

The new Western Cancer Centre at Dubbo Hospital has opened its doors. Photo supplied

The opening of the Western Cancer Centre in Dubbo last week will have a huge impact on medical treatment for residents across the western region.

The state-of-the-art Cancer Centre opened its doors to patients on Monday, although not all services are available.

Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, played an instrumental role in getting the funding for the Centre and said it was one of the proudest moments of his political career to see the doors of the centre finally open.

“The Western Cancer Centre is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” Mr Coulton said.

“In 2016, I presented a petition to parliament with more than 40,000 signatures, from people living in Dubbo and throughout the far west of NSW.

“The government understood the importance of lifesaving diagnoses and treatment closer to home and it was a great result and one of my proudest moments in 14 years as a member of parliament.

“Life-threatening diseases are more difficult for people in the bush to deal with, and I have had personal experience with close family members trying to travel to Sydney and often, the trip negated the treatment.

“This centre will benefit people in Dubbo all residents across the whole western region, and as well as the Cancer Centre there is also the Macquarie Homestay.

“People can stay there without exorbitant costs, and it means western people who feel more comfortable travelling to Dubbo than Sydney will choose treatment, rather than deciding it is too hard and not going ahead with it,” Mr Coulton said.

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