One of the cars was purchased with a generous donation in memory of Percival Dicker who died in February 2019, under the care of the ERH community nursing team.
According to his sister Sue Pilcher, Mr Dicker had often said during his cancer battle he wanted to donate to the hospital, which was also where his mother had worked for 35 years.
“When he would go in for chemotherapy there weren’t enough chairs so you would have to wait, and he told the nurses he would like to buy another chair,” Mrs Pilcher said.
Mr Dicker had previously survived throat cancer but was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“At the end he was in respite in Bendigo, but he said he wanted to come back and spend his last weeks in Echuca,” Mrs Pilcher said.
“They made sure there was room for him at (Echuca Regional Health) on a Sunday night, and he died a few days later on the Thursday.”
But not before he handed over a cheque to the palliative care team from his bed on the Monday.
“He felt they’d done so much for him and made him very comfortable at the end,” Mrs Pilcher said.
“He was overwhelmed by the way they looked after him.”
The new additions to ERH’s car fleet will improve the ability of staff to provide care in people’s homes and in the community.
ERH chief executive Nick Bush said the strategic plan for the health service had set the direction for as much care as possible to be done in the home and community.
“It is really important to improve the cars to allow our staff to provide an increased level of care in the community,” Mr Bush said.
“We thank the family of Percy Dicker for their generous donation to support the process.”
ERH executive director of finance Robyn Rudge said it was important to improve the fleet cars and keep the purchasing of cars local.
“We have bought the new fleet cars from Echuca dealerships to support the people who have supported us,” she said.
Mr Bush thanked staff at ERH for their work to strengthen the financial viability of the health service through many different revenue initiatives and difficult belt tightening in the past year.
“Thank you to our staff who have supported these changes and worked with us to achieve the results,” he said.
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