Health concerns in the West make front-page news
Together with Cobar locals, I have been working on a number of stories with the Sydney Morning Herald to highlight what’s going on with our health system in Barwon.
Through a series of stories over the course of last week, the paper highlighted a number of troubling incidents out west.
Sadly, it’s an all too familiar story for us, a trip to the local hospital ends with someone packed up into an ambulance or plane and taken to a bigger centre.
The health system is spending millions every year on these evacuations. What’s hidden is the cost to all of us, the many trips we have to take to seek care - paying out of our own back pocket, and the people that pack up and leave our towns because the risk to their health and the toll it’s taking is simply too much.
Our health workers in Barwon are fantastic; I support them wholeheartedly and back them every day of the week. This week I am meeting with representatives of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association to talk about the issues facing our nurses and the changes they would like to see in our community hospitals.
The NSW Government cannot keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. The health system in regional NSW is seriously broken. It’s going to take more than new hospital buildings to fix it.
Read the stories on the Sydney Morning Herald
From a walk at Manly to amputation: hospitals putting 'lives at risk'
No food or Panadol: Anger over 'Third World' conditions before hospital death
A hospital turned him away three times. Then 2.5m of his bowel 'died'
