Over the next two days 35 patients queued up to see Dr Meulman at the Bourke Medical Centre where he offered his services as a consultant.

Unable to enter hospital grounds Dr Meulman spent his time in the town filling out admission forms and preparing a waiting list of people who need surgical procedures.

Bourke’s new hospital has the only functioning operating theatre between Dubbo and Broken Hill, however, for the past three and a half years there has been no surgeon.

The people of the small community are left with no choice but to make the eight hour return journey to Dubbo for even the most minor surgery. Dr Meulman made the decision to fly to Bourke this week after the area health service repeatedly turned down his offer to work for free. He has been wanting to provide an outreach service to the town of 3000 people for the past 18 months.

By Thursday he was done with talking.

The trip cost him more than $1000 out of his own pocket and he intends to continue travelling to Bourke once a month to see patients despite GWAHS’ efforts to shut him down.

“I’m offering my services free of charge and they are obstructing me,” Dr Meulman said.

“There’s no point dealing with them. They’ve just washed their hands of it.

He said the cases he saw this week were largely hernias, vasectomies and skin cancers.

“More than ever I am convinced the people of Bourke need that service - no question,” he said.

“If GWAHS hadn’t stuffed up the work on our new hospital they could have provided a surgical outreach service to Bourke for the next 20 years.”

Dr Muelman intends to raise the matter with NSW health minister John Della Bosca when he visits Bathurst on Tuesday. Member for Bathurst Gerard Martin has thrown his support behind Dr Meulman describing the correct course of action as a “no brainer”.

Mr Martin has already spoken with Mr Della Bosca regarding the issue and hopes to facilitate a meeting between the minister and Dr Meulman.

“The health service has been putting forward an argument that there is no demand.

“The fact that Dr Meulman went out on Thursday and more than 30 patients wanted to see him proves that is not true.”

“I hope the minister intervenes rather than leaving it to the bureaucrats,” Mr Martin said.