Bathurst action group spokesman on NSW Government's health inquiry response

Earlier this month, Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor said the NSW Government would be taking meaningful action to provide safe and high quality health care services in the bush.

This was in response to the findings of a parliamentary inquiry into health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote NSW, which were handed down in May, 2022.

READ MORE: Warren Aubin welcomes report after sitting in hearing for parliamentary health inquiry

The NSW Government supports or supports in principle 41 of the 44 recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry and says work is already under way to address many of these supported recommendations.

In their response to the findings the NSW Government outlined funding which has been set aside in the 2021 and 2022 budgets to address some of the issues raised in the inquiry.

The largest pools of funding include $4.5 billion over four years to employ 10,148 full-time equivalent staff for hospitals and health services across NSW and $1.76 billion to recruit 2128 new staff for NSW Ambulance and deliver 30 more ambulance stations.

The government also plans to spend $883 million over the next four years to attract and retain staff in rural and regional NSW, $149.5 million to improve and expand the Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme and $743 million over the next five years will go towards enhancing end-of-life care.

To drive their response going forward, the government has also announced the formation of a Regional Health Ministerial Advisory Panel.

But Warren Aubin, the spokesman for the Bathurst Health Services Action Group, is not getting too excited about the plans just yet.

He said that, on paper, they look like a good way to address issues in rural and regional areas, but only time will tell if the NSW Government follows through on them.

"It's easy to write stuff in a press release and say, 'Due to the parliament inquiry, this is the steps we are going to take to make things better'. Well, that's all great, but hopefully there is terms in place so there is follow up so there is things happening for the better and not staying stagnant or getting worse," Mr Aubin said.

His main concern is staffing, knowing that many nurses are quitting the profession due to fatigue and safety concerns.

"We need to have more nurses on the floor to share the workload. The ones that are there are doing their best job, but they need help," he said.

"It's a horrible situation to see nurses just tossing in the towel because it's too hard. It shouldn't be like that.

"[The NSW Government's] saying they're going to employ over 10,000 new nurses, well they better, because that's what they've put down there and that's what it needs to be. And when they do that, they need to get this nurse-to-patient ratio sorted out."

Nurses and midwives have been calling for better ratios to ensure they are able to provide appropriate care to patients.

In Bathurst specifically, a $200 million redevelopment has been announced.

The investment has been welcomed by the health community and the action group, but some are concerned that there won't be adequate staff to support it.

"It's all well and good to have these beautiful facilities and upgrade them, but you've got to have the staff to match it," Cr Aubin said.

The committee that conducted the parliamentary inquiry has recommended a further inquiry to report on the progress and developments to address the matters raised in two years' time.

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