These days, early morning or late night calls terrify Rod Crowfoot, managing director of Macquarie Home Stay.
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He says saying no to families calling him for urgent accommodation at Macquarie Home Stay simply melts his heart.
The 14-bed facility at Tony McGrane Place is the only affordable accommodation for out-of-town low-income seriously-ill patients, particularly mothers due to give birth or caring for their sick child, at Dubbo Base Hospital.
With a few rooms to offer, though they are more-than-often already booked out with patients and their families or carers, Mr Crowfoot said "it's heartbreaking".
Over the weekend, two families from Cobar and Mudgee tearfully hung up the phone as Mr Crowfoot turned them down.
"I had two ladies crying just before 8am ... One has her husband in intensive care and the other desperately needs a place," Mr Crowfoot told the Daily Liberal on Monday.
What's even more heart-wrenching for Mr Crowfoot is having to advise four patients they must leave on Monday after an extended stay that can no longer be stretched due to the waiting list.
"We just couldn't fit them any longer with this current volume of people we had to turn away. This has been the situation for us for a while," Mr Crowfoot said.
Patients who cannot be accommodated at Macquarie Home Stay fork out over $100 for a night in motels and caravan parks around the city or sleep in their cars if they don't have the financial means, Mr Crowfoot said.
"We've always relied on motels to pick up the slack and have some availability for people to stay the night that was not in their car," Mr Crowfoot said.
But in the last two weekends in Dubbo, the accommodation businesses around the city have been booked out as business travelers and tourists visit the city, Countryman Motor Inn owner Richard Lindner said.
"For the last or four of five months, it's been very hard to get a room in Dubbo. A lot of people are traveling on the road post-Covid so it's a combination of factors [that we have no extra room for them].
"With retirees travelling a lot more here and families going to the [Western Plains Taronga] zoo for the school holidays, the tourism market is well up.
The local accommodation businesses estimate up to a 40 per cent increase in the intake of visitors into the city and nearby towns, Mr Lindner said.
"We do have a lot of people coming in for their treatments here, about five per cent, but it's part of our trade for people to come.
However, Mr Lindner said they can't simply drop their daily rate to accommodate people turned away from Macquarie Home Stay when they are booked out as well with "someone willing to pay for it".
Mr Lindner said he offers couples $135 a night of stay, and families at $160 to $180 a night.
His 22-bed motel on Cobra Street now has "No Vacancy" sign up until next week, and the following week's booking sheet is "already half full", Mr Lindner said.
Mr Crowfoot said he had rung the owners of 20 motels and caravan parks around the city, and "I just cannot find a vacant room".
I had two ladies crying just before 8am ... One has her husband in intensive care and the other desperately needs a place,
- Rod Crowfoot
"It's good to hear that the city is doing well in the accommodation space but what we are concerned about is the volume of people we are turning away for health care reasons," he said.
Macquarie Home Stay provides cheap accommodation, less than $50 a night, for patients and their carers or immediate family members coming from more than 100 kilometres away from Dubbo where they are seeking urgent treatment.
Apart from patients undergoing surgery for all forms of illness, such as cancer patients at the hospital's cancer centre, half of those who seek help from the service are expectant mothers or mothers with sick children.
Each year, thousands of patients visit Dubbo for hospital and allied health services, and many are coming from remote towns where they don't have the regular availability of doctors or health services for their type of illness and emergencies.
Mr Crowfoot said they had presented their case to the new minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development, Catherine King to seek funding to expand the service with another 16 bedrooms to accommodate the growing need of patients.
"There's been nothing from them and we're continuing our discussion with state and other federal agencies so they can work out what may be available for Macquarie Home Stay.
"We've been trying to engage with them all to see if they can offer us help because our case highlights the shortage of accommodation facilities for patients in our region."
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Elizabeth Frias
I began my news reporting days in western and inner west Sydney before joining the Daily Liberal's Dubbo NSW newsroom. Telling all sorts of stories about people, places and events is my daily preoccupation so email me at elizabeth.frias@austcommunitymedia.com.au and I'll be in touch!
I began my news reporting days in western and inner west Sydney before joining the Daily Liberal's Dubbo NSW newsroom. Telling all sorts of stories about people, places and events is my daily preoccupation so email me at elizabeth.frias@austcommunitymedia.com.au and I'll be in touch!
