GRIEVING relatives no longer have a chapel at Port Macquarie Base Hospital.
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The North Coast Area Health Service has turned the room set aside for relatives and friends of patients to mourn into a meeting room.
Port Macquarie’s Julie Masters said she was shocked to learn of the closure.
Ms Masters wanted to visit the chapel to remember her father, William James Mann, who died in the hospital more than five years ago.
“Whenever I go in to the hospital I think of my dad,” the 50-year-old said. “I just wanted to sit down and think of him.”
The mother-of-two said she thought it was a mistake when told the chapel had closed.
“She took me to the room where the chapel was and when she opened the door I just burst in to tears,” Ms Masters said.
“I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it.”
The grandmother-of-four said there should be a place reserved in the hospital for people to grieve.
“I think it’s shocking and I believe the majority of people in Port Macquarie would disagree with the decision to close it,” she said.
St Agnes Catholic parish priest Father Leo Donnelly also disagreed.
He said the decision to close the chapel was “sad”.
“It was a quiet place where we could take people during the grieving process,” Father Donnelly said.
Port Macquarie counsellor Patricia Herbert questioned why the chapel would be closed.
“It seems like a step backwards,” Mrs Herbert said.
“For some people going through the grieving process, the chapel would bring them comfort.
“It would be quite important for them to have somewhere to go.”
A health service spokeswoman said the chapel was closed after consultation with the hospital’s chaplain, Leanne Smith.
The Port News has been unable to confirm this, because Mrs Smith was prevented from speaking with the press.
The spokeswoman said the hospital’s management had established a working party of local clergy about a plan to build a new chapel on hospital land.
It is not known who belongs to the working party
The former chapel is now used for meetings between clinical staff and patients for the hospital’s new Medical Assessment Unit, established to provide care for patients with chronic conditions who don’t need emergency treatment.