ACTIONS speak louder than words and results speak louder than promises.
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And the Western NSW Local Health District has again been put on notice that Bathurst is watching and waiting for real improvements to local services.
As we've written many times before, very few of the complaints about Bathurst's health system are critical of the people who work within it.
By and large patients at Bathurst Base Hospital praise the care they receive from doctors and nurses ... "given the circumstances".
What Bathurst people do not - and cannot - tolerate, though, is the ongoing suspicion that we are not getting a fair share of the health funding pie.
And even as the Western NSW health bureaucrats work on a clinical services plan that they promise will address many of the community's concerns, the Bathurst lobby group now pushing for better health services is making it clear that promises will not be enough.
Indeed, they're already saying that even if the current promises are met in full, our community still will not be satisfied.
Spokesman Warren Aubin told the Western Advocate that "the only ray of light" in the plan was that the need for a new acute ward for the Bathurst hospital had been identified, but he fears the high cost tied to the project may see it never eventuate.
And so we're left to wait, hope and harass.
Health officials conceded last month that the $100 million redevelopment of Bathurst Base Hospital in 2008 was not all it should have been, leaving us with a facility that just 12 years later is already struggling to meet the demands of a still-growing city.
While we don't expect a health service that can cater for every ailment, we do expect a service that doesn't render our city the poor cousin of centres such as Orange and Dubbo.
All this means there is an awful lot riding on the development of a clinical services plan, both in terms of the new medical services and medical spaces we want to see and also in terms of rebuilding the confidence of the people of Bathurst.
We've been burnt before and we're naturally wary about bureaucrats bearing gifts.
But Western NSW LHD is making a real point of communicating with the public and we're hearing all the right noises at this stage.
Let's hope they get it right this time.