As the locksmiths arrived to fasten the hatches at Murchison’s DP Jones nursing home yesterday, dozens of former employees gathered to bid their final farewell to the beloved facility.
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With no residents left to care for, the final remaining employees were made redundant just in time to join more than 50 past workers who had arrived at the home to reminisce about their time at the centre.
Having worked at the facility for 36 years Bernadette Burke describes the fall of the nursing home as gut-wrenching and said having to say goodbye to the centre on Tuesday was heartbreaking.
“It was always my second family – when I wasn’t at home I was here,” she said.
“We will have a lot of laughs in there today because there’s a lot of history, but it’s going to be really sad when we have to walk out the doors this afternoon.
“It's been an emotional rollercoaster, one minute it looks promising, the next it’s not.
“It's disappointing, we feel we’ve failed a little bit - I know in my head we haven’t but you do think about what else we could have done to save it,” she said.
Alongside making lifelong friends, Ms Burke said the care the facility gave to residents was extremely unique.
“I actually had the privilege to nurse two generations of the one family at DP Jones,” Ms Burke said.
“For some residents we were their only family they had.
“I go from being devastated and angry because we worked so hard, we loved the place and the residents,” she said.
Adrienne Maynard also worked at the centre for three decades and joined her long-time friends and ex-colleagues in saying goodbye yesterday.
“One staff member didn’t make it because she said it would have been just too sad,” Ms Maynard said.
Ms Maynard, however, continues to wish the facility will reopen.
“I think we provided inclusive care and dedicated care and I’ve had many people say to me they wanted to go to Murchison when they reached that stage,” Ms Maynard said.
“And hopefully that can still happen.
“There is a very feisty community here . . .
“I think we will find other ways to keep this little metropolis thriving.
“It’s a beautiful town on the river and we can only hope and keep positive,” she said.
The closure comes as aged care provider Honeysuckle Regional Health made an in-principle agreement with Member for Nicholls Damian Drum last week to take over the facility which was placed into liquidation in November.
However, Mr Drum and SV Partners chief liquidator Richard Cauchi could not confirm the takeover plan.
It's believed Mr Drum is continuing to negotiate with the Federal Government in Canberra this week to find a way to reopen the nursing home.
