Regional Health Inquiry hits Cobar

The Regional Health Inquiry in Cobar last week heard some extremely concerning and stark examples of how broken our health care system is in the bush.

Our nurses and health professionals shouldn’t have to go to work every day in fear of being short staffed, or overworked and tired because they’re pulling double shifts to ensure there’s someone at the local hospital to provide care.

The members of the public and local Councils that have presented their stories and experiences have done so in a manner that we should all be proud of. A rousing well done must go to Jenny
Tyack and Annie Ryan who both spoke so well. They made the four hour trip from Condobolin and back again in the same day and presented genuinely distressing information to a committee that needed to hear these accounts of actual events.

The lived reality of regional people is often different to the view presented by Health officials and that’s why this committee is to be congratulated for travelling to us and listening. There is such a shortfall in health services that this evidence must be pushed to drive change. This inquiry isn’t about laying blame it’s about getting to the root cause of our health system issues and finding a way forward.

There are still more hearings to come in Barwon including Walgett on 2 November and Broken Hill on 3 November.

The full transcript from the day will be published here in the coming days.