Bathurst councillor Warren Aubin and environmental, planning and building services director Neil Southorn had crunched the numbers before attending Tuesday's parliamentary inquiry into rural health hearing at Wellington and found that Bathurst was 53 medical practitioners short of parity with comparable cities.

Our region was found to have just 32.3 medical practitioners per 10,000 head of population, compared to the NSW benchmark of 44.6.

And the shortfall is even more stark when compared with the relative over-supply of doctors in Orange where there are currently 77.7 medical practitioners per 10,000 head of population, while Dubbo is sitting right on the state benchmark.

Tuesday's hearing was told the situation is even more dire in smaller towns across the western region but the Bathurst contingent, rightly, was there to push the case for better services for Bathurst - and it's a message that must finally be heard in Macquarie Street.

"If those 53 medical practitioners were in Bathurst, to bring it up to NSW benchmark, that would create 94 direct jobs ... and that would have an economic impact of $8.7 million every year," Mr Southorn said.

"There's a jobs multiplier because every one of those professional positions brings a ripple effect through the local economy, through the NSW economy, through the national economy, and that would create 137 additional indirect jobs.

"It's not just the human side of these issues, it goes to the economic welfare of the community as well."

That's perhaps all true but in its simplest terms this is a question of equity and, right now, the people of Bathurst are missing out.

Concerns about the local health service have never been about the quality of health professionals working in the city but, rather, the quantity.

The shortfall is unfair on the health professionals already serving the city who are being stretched to breaking point, and unfair on a community that continues to be treated as second-class citizens.

Bathurst's presentation to the health inquiry has clearly demonstrated the inequity and the government now has no choice but to address the issue.

We wait to see the response.

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