Residents at Fairview Retirement Village will eventually be able to have greater choice in their accommodation options thanks to more than $480,000 in federal government funding.
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The Moree aged care facility will receive a total of $485,040 to go towards the refurbishment and reconstruction of rooms, bathroom rebuilds and plumbing and electrical upgrades.
“The funding is to improve the infrastructure on the site to increase single room accommodation, so we can have single rooms with ensuites,” Fairview facility manager Jane Mackney said.
“At the moment the single rooms only have shared bathrooms.
“The ensuite rooms will give people more choice with what accommodation they can have.”
Six to eight rooms at Fairview will be renovated to include ensuites and a sitting area.
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“It will make a huge difference to residents and to new residents coming in from the community,” Ms Mackney said.
“We’re trying to plan ahead for the future.
“A sitting area in the rooms will also be great for families visiting, as it’s a lot more dignified to take them into a lounge area, rather than just sitting on the bed.”
The funding will also go towards other minor renovations on site, including upgrading the doctors’, allied health and medication rooms.
“It’s little things but it will make a big difference,” Ms Mackney said.
“We’re excited. We got the total funding amount we put in for. If we didn’t get this funding, we would not be able to go ahead with the upgrades.”
Fairview is one of 15 residential aged care homes in the Parkes electorate to receive more than $5 million in funding for infrastructure upgrades.
Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton said he is delighted with the Coalition government’s investment, which will fund refurbishments, extensions and improvements to the homes under the Aged Care Regional, Rural and Remote Infrastructure Grants scheme.
“This is a wonderful bonus for the New Year, with many aged care homes in my electorate set to receive their share in $5 million of funding,” Mr Coulton said.
“There are numerous impressive projects on the cards, including renovations and air-conditioning installation for Cooinda Hostel in Coonabarabran with a $496,084 grant, and bathroom refurbishments for RSL Lifecare in Condobolin with $496,000.
“Gilgandra’s Cooee Lodge Hostel has received $488,750 for a kitchen refurbishment, electrical upgrades and other developments.
“These are some of the excellent infrastructure works that will greatly improve the standard of aged care and quality of life for our well-deserving seniors in the Parkes electorate.”
Other towns that will benefit from the funding include Warialda, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Walgett, Bourke, Coonamble, Gunnedah, Menindee, and Wilcannia. The funding follows Mr Coulton’s recent announcement that 31 flexible aged care places in the electorate will upgrade their care level to ‘high’.
“Aged care services are vital in the rural and regional communities across my electorate,” he said.
“I am enormously proud of this $5 million investment in bettering our residential aged care homes, and I congratulate the successful recipients.”
The funding is part of the Coalition government’s $5 billion aged care funding boost, announced in the 2018-19 Budget.