On the 14th of October 2019, the Kununurra Medical Centre, with the support of Lotterywest, held its sod turning ceremony to commence construction of the new Wunan Health and Wellbeing Centre. In attendance at the event were Dr. Stephanie Trust (Senior Medical Officer at Kununurra Medical), Mr. Ian Trust (Chairperson of Wunan Foundation, Mr. Viane Watson (CEO of Wunan Foundation) and Ms Josie Farrer MLA (Member for the Kimberley, representing Hon. Ben Wyatt MLA (Treasurer; Minister for Finance; Aboriginal Affairs; Lands Member for Victoria Park), among other notable members of the community.
The ceremony marked the first step for the construction of a Health and Wellbeing Centre in Kununurra, to improve access to healthcare options for the whole community. ‘Kununurra is limited in terms of its access to private health and allied health care services,’ said Dr. Trust, ‘we aim to increase our GP, Specialist and Allied health services to our local and surrounding areas but to also to cater for the tourist season’.
The Health and Wellbeing centre will feature a range of facilities including in-house pathology, pharmacy, dental room, physiotherapy room and accommodation for locum practitioners. ‘With more consulting rooms, procedure rooms and specialist appointment rooms, we will be able to offer a range of specialist services and added services such as chronic disease care, wound care, social and emotional wellbeing services and palliative care,’ Dr. Trust added.
Construction of the new Wunan Health and Wellbeing Centre received major support from Lotterywest, the only lottery in Australia, and one of few in the world, where all profits are returned back to the Western Australian community. In 2018-19 Lotterywest raised more than $281 million to support the WA community.
Due to the limitations of space in the existing premises, the new Wunan Health and Wellbeing Centre will drastically improve the waiting time patients currently experience to see a doctor. The new centre will make a significant contribution to the health of the whole community in Kununurra and the surrounding region. We thank our clients for their patience and continuing support.