The Bulli Hospital Auxiliary has welcomed five new members and the group's 92-year-old president Janice Puddle says the fresh injection of support is “wonderful”.
“This auxiliary is a family auxiliary. Our new members range from teenagers to mature-age ladies and we're very, very happy about that,” Janice says.
“I’ve been involved with Bulli Hospital for half my life, since 1969, and we’ve been working with about 10 members for years, so this is wonderful.”
As the oldest group in the Illawarra, the auxiliary has supported Bulli Hospital through 94 years of changes.
“It’s a different hospital than what it used to be. It is still a very community-driven hospital. But the role of the hospital now is geriatric, palliative care and urgent care,” Janice says.
In 2020, staff and patients of old Bulli District Hospital were moved across the road to the new Bulli Hospital and Aged Care Centre.
“We’ve lost maternity, we’ve lost general nursing, the X-ray department, that all went. A friend of Bulli hospital started the palliative care off, then that went off Port Kembla, then we had the maternity section – the birthing centre and that went off to Wollongong,” Janice says.
“Urgent care is open now on the weekends as well as through the week, and it’s open until 4 o'clock on Saturdays. That's good, instead of people having to go to Wollongong and sit for hours.
“Anyway all our beds are full now and the hospital is lovely. Each person has a room of their own, and their own bathroom, so they're quite comfortable.”
Local auxiliaries provide necessary funding and support for patients in hospitals across Australia, but community support is vital for local health centres.
“What people don't realise is that a lot of medical equipment are things that the government does not supply to hospitals,” Janice says.
“At the moment, we're raising money to give the hospital an ultrasound and two blood scanners.”
Despite challenges following the Covid-19 pandemic, the auxiliary remains active in the community. Bulli residents can support fundraising efforts at the auxiliary's stalls at Coles, the hospital and community events.
“We're doing nicely at the moment, we do very well on the stalls we have in Coles. It's a very generous shopping centre down there, and at the hospital too,” Janice says.
“We used to have luncheons every year but with Covid coming in, all of our fundraising efforts were knocked away. We always used to have about 100 people coming to that. Now we go to all the other auxiliaries’ events when they send us invitations.
“The amount of money that the auxiliary has raised is amazing. But we haven't got the business behind us out here like we used to, because everything's changing.”
As Bulli welcomes new residents, the auxiliary faces the challenge of raising awareness about the hospital's services.
“We’re not getting the people in because people have to work. Young people today have to work to survive. There are new people moving in who don't know the area, and lots of people didn't know that the hospital existed.”
Janice says it is important that the group supports other auxiliaries in the area by attending their events as well. The United Hospitals Auxiliaries (UHA) 91st Annual State Conference 2024 will be held on October 22, 23 and 24 in Bankstown.
“We always have somebody going to the conferences ... we never miss out on anything. You've got to put it out there!”
For more details about supporting or joining the Bulli Hospital Auxiliary contact Raylene Fletcher on 0406 657 354 or visit the Facebook page.
