IF EVER there was just reward it should come to Kooweerup and district residents and probably has.
News this week that their hospital will undergo a major redevelopment, to my way of thinking, results from the fact that Kooweerup people would not let their hospital die.
The redevelopment will make way for wideranging health care and this is wonderful news for people in a rural community. We saw hospitals across the state, such as Pakenham and almost Berwick, close their doors, overwhelmed by financial burden and lack of government support, but Kooweerup people managed to hang on one way or another.
I recall one influential resident telling me that they would not let the hospital close and they didn’t.
Partly because of an overflow from the lingering delays in building the Casey Hospital when it took up the slack, but mostly because of undying community support.
We saw a change in name to Kooweerup Regional Health Service, and, to me, dropping the word hospital from the name was the thin edge of the wedge, but we can now use the word unashamedly because it will have 18 acute hospital beds.
It will be the centre of health services radiating out into the community and will be the staging point for those in need of more urgent care available at Casey Hospital.
A warm and fuzzy feeling comes from the knowledge that so many people in the area will work so hard to retain such desperately needed services.
Such costly facilities are difficult to maintain in outer areas, but people still have the same health needs, compounded by isolation.