‘Save Wee Waa Hospital’ campaign continues

Concerned community members met at the Wee Waa hospital grounds on Saturday with Member for Barwon Roy Butler.

Mr Butler said he ‘was unable to attend the public rally on Tuesday, November 26, due to the short notice given to me for the rally and having a prior commitment in Broken Hill’.

However, at the end of the rally it was asked if Mr Butler would meet the Wee Waa community to hear their thoughts and he wanted to follow-up, so organised the community gathering held on Saturday.

About 250 people attended the November ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ rally, which was organised by local community members in the hope ‘people power’ will make an impact and help keep the hospital’s doors open and lead to the long-awaited recruitment of a permanent doctor.

At the time of going to print, a petition calling for action had about 1530 signatures. It’s understood 10,000 signatures are needed for the issue to be debated in NSW Parliament.

A statement from NSW Health Minister Ryan Park was distributed by Mr Butler’s office at the community meeting and read out by Narrabri Shire Council mayor Darrell Tiemens, who also spoke and attended the meeting. (See this week’s mayor’s column for comments)

“To the community members of Wee Waa and surrounds,” stated the document from the NSW Health Minister.

“I want to make it clear that we are absolutely committed to health services in and around Wee Waa, including Wee Waa Hospital.

“The local health district continues to recruit for staff as well as offer incentives for those who join our rural and regional health services.

“We remain committed to restoring and increasing health services in the Wee Waa community.

“I will continue to work with the Local Member Roy Butler to get this situation resolved.”

Mr Butler told the Wee Waa News he understood “people are concerned and unhappy about the situation.”

“The point of the barbecue and meet and greet was to allow me to talk and listen to the local Wee Waa community and to assure them the plan is to restore and improve services at the Wee Waa hospital.

“The focus of my visit to Wee Waa was the issue of the hospital, I also met other locals to discuss other private issues that need intervention at a Ministerial level,” said Mr Butler.

“The Minister and I have been talking to HNELHD about recruiting more staff and resolving negotiations to appoint a VMO, but they continue to report that the recruitment drive is not working and they are unable to reach an agreement with a doctor.

“Nyngan had a similar problem, going to reduced hours due to a lack of staff in October 2022, but they were able to resolve their staffing problems by January this year.

“It is not clear why HNELHD is unable to get the same results.”

“I have four LHDs in Barwon and thirteen local governments, so I get to compare the effectiveness and delivery styles with the position I’m in.

“People are unhappy with HNE and have a low level of trust.

“I will continue to discuss this with the Health Minister and the HNE CEO. It is not tenable for HNE to operate with such low levels of public confidence.”