THE Bathurst hospital is operating better now than it did before COVID-19 hit the region, a doctor has told the Bathurst Health Services Action Group.
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Over the past 12 months, the group has been making a lot of noise about how inadequate it believes the health service is to meet the demands of the population.
At the moment, though, the situation is more positive.
Spokesperson of the group, Warren Aubin said, a doctor at the hospital got in touch with him recently to say that there had been some great changes since the coronavirus pandemic started.
"He actually said to me that things were operating extremely well at the hospital at the moment," he said.
"They've taken over the psychiatric unit next door and started a fast-track and short-stay unit, everything we were asking for.
"The orthopods are doing ortho work locally and there is a daily emergency theatre list for all emergency work, so there's no people - unless it's a major trauma - getting transferred to Orange. It's all getting done here."
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These changes, Cr Aubin said, are the result of doctors coming up with a plan and it being put into action.
The action groups feels that, if this improved level of service can be provided amidst a pandemic, then it should be able to be achieved under normal circumstances.
"[The doctor] doesn't want to capitalise on a disaster, but it's such a great opportunity for Bathurst Hospital to show it can function higher than it is being allowed otherwise," Cr Aubin said.
"It also shows just how silly it was to decrease staff numbers, as there's an awful lot of locums working at the hospital at the moment keeping the place afloat.
"Things that are happening over there are what the action group was saying should be happening in the first place: getting more beds, actually getting daily emergency services and orthopaedic work done locally.
"If they can do it now, surely they can do it in the future."
He said the lesson was for the management to listen to doctors and aim to deliver current service levels post-coronavirus.
"The hospital is actually working better now than it has at any time in the last few years," he said.
"That tells us something, it tells us that doctors know how the hospital should be run and they should have more say in what happens up there than the bureaucrats."
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the Western NSW Local Health District was finalising a clinical services plan for Bathurst and looking into developing a master plan to expand the hospital in the future.
