Shortage of rural medical professionals, services discussed at chamber meeting

The lack of medical services in country towns was the theme of guest speaker Cheyenne Moody’s address to the first meeting for the year of Narrabri Chamber of Commerce on February 14.

Ms Moody, based in Armidale for Hunter New England Health, represents the region’s Primary Health Network.

Chamber president Russell Stewart welcomed Ms Moody, members and guests to the meeting attended by 20 people.

Primary Health Networks are independent organisations which manage health regions. Australia has 31 PHN regions that closely align with the state and territory local hospital networks.

The Hunter New England and Central Coast PHN area has a population of about 1.3 million people covering Gosford to Taree along the coast, then inland to Tenterfield, and west to Moree.

PHNs commission health services to meet the needs of people in their regions and address gaps in primary health care by working closely with general practitioners and other health professionals.

Ms Moody addressed the problems around issues regarding health professionals (PHN) services in country towns.

The main issues around the topic are the difficulties in bringing health professionals into towns and their tenure – ‘it is rare that they stay long every and how do we keep them here’ the meeting heard. And they are very busy, ‘time poor’ and accordingly can struggle to meet the demands of their role.

Ms Moody invited the chamber to suggest strategies and options to include Narrabri in the PHN scheme.

The principal area of focus is GPs, then allied health and hospitals and specialists.

In general business, Mr Stewart reported on the chamber’s successful Narrabri Christmas Carnival, which he said was a huge success.

Feedback was that the Friday night carnival scheduling suited businesses, and a date for the 2023 Carnival has been mooted for Friday, December 15, with a second late shopping night also proposed.

Mr Stewart extended his congratulations to chamber member Jenny Gale for her work in again leading the small volunteer team in erecting and decorating the chamber’s Christmas tree.

He also congratulated the shire council on the Maitland Street decorations and lighting, which added to the festive atmosphere.

The chamber welcomed the announcement that Santos will be major sponsors for the Narrabri Business Awards for the next three years.

The organising committee is now looking at the scheduling of the event for 2023.

Labor candidate for Barwon at the March 25 NSW elections, Joshua Roberts-Garnsey, addressed the meeting covering issues of importance to the north west.

Mr Roberts-Garnsey, is a teacher at Narrabri High and is passionate about education issues. He has family connections to Gwabegar.

A chamber-sponsored ‘Meet the Candidates’ event was suggested ahead of the March state elections with a date to be advised.

In general discussion, one of the issues raised, which affects most employers in the district, was the critical shortage of labour to staff local businesses.

Andrew Forbes, representing Daracon, echoed the concerns of those at the meeting when he spoke of the difficulties in sourcing people to work on local projects.