Whitehaven Coal : Boggabri residents get best seats in the house

The residents of Boggabri Multipurpose Centre are sitting pretty after the gift of three new pressure relief chairs.

Whitehaven Coal's Maules Creek mine used $12,000 from its coffers to purchase the chairs, which help residents with mobility issues.

Health Service manager, Liz Worboys, said Whitehaven's External Relations Superintendent Darren Swain and a fellow employee visited the centre at the beginning of the year to see what was needed.

'For residents who normally have very limited mobility, it enables us to have them sitting up and get them out of bed,' she said. 'A lot of our residents like to sit out the front.'

Ms Worboys said the centre previously had two old chairs, which weren't very user-friendly, and they found they had to rotate patients.

'The old ones were looking a bit worse for wear and they actually didn't meet standards any more,' she said.

All three chairs can be easily cleaned and can also be pumped up. One of the chairs is hydraulic.

'We have a bike pump. We can actually increase and decrease pressure according to what a resident needs,' Ms Worboys said.

'The benefit of having a hydraulic one is that it not only comes up and down, it also lies flat like a bed, which is good for bigger patients.

The manager said the chairs were also safer for staff and residents, with less manual handling needed, and smooth movement unlike the older chairs, which were difficult to manoeuvre.

Mr Swain said Maules Creek was excited it could help the Boggabri centre.

'Maules Creek Coal is trying to engage more with the local community and it's one of the ways it can provide valuable assistance to the community,' he said.

Pictured are Michelle Longworth, Donna Boyer and Liz Worboys trying out the new pressure relief chairs at Boggabri Multipurpose Centre with Whitehaven Coal's Darren Swain.

Credit: Namoi Valley Independent