MP continues to call for action on health services

Member for Barwon Roy Butler said the results of a Rural Doctors Survey delivered a clear message from the Wee Waa community: residents want services at the hospital to be restored.

Mr Butler has again called on the local health district to solve the issues plaguing Wee Waa Hospital and stated he remains confident Health Minister Ryan Park wants to see the health service available 24/7 with a Visiting Medical Officer recruited as soon as possible.

“Of the 327 respondents, the need for after-hours urgent care was a primary concern,” Mr Butler said about the survey conducted late last year and its results were recently released.

It’s also referred to as the Wee Waa Health Services Survey.

“People are unhappy with the services they have in Wee Waa, with many questioning the effectiveness of telehealth,” said Mr Butler.

“Although the government does not have to respond to this survey, it provides a baseline for deciding what is needed in the community.

“Much work is being done to understand the issues at Wee Waa Hospital.

“The independent review will consider decisions made by the Hunter New England Health District regarding the local community’s health needs, workforce recruitment and retention, and services and models of care.”

The Courier asked Mr Butler about the survey and the campaign to ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ recently, when he was touring the Narrabri Shire with the Minister for Roads and Regional Transport Jenny Aitchison and meeting with Narrabri Shire Council representatives including the mayor Darrell Tiemens and general manager Eloise Chaplain.

As previously reported, the community, council, local and political representatives have been calling for urgent action on Wee Waa Hospital. Ramping up their campaign after HNELHD made the announcement in 2023: “To ensure ongoing safe patient care, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily reduce some services at Wee Waa Health Service from Monday, May 8, 2023,”.

Since the announcement, the community and its leaders have rallied together to try to keep the hospital’s doors open by shining a spotlight on what’s been described as a ‘hospital crisis’.

From successfully launching a petition to trigger debate in NSW Parliament to sparking an independent review into the health needs of the local community, workforce recruitment and retention, decisions around services and models of care. Advocates have made it clear they ‘won’t back down’.

The ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ campaign has been so steadfast and loud it’s not a surprising a key result of the survey was concern about ‘limited availability of urgent care services after hours and the additional travel required to Narrabri in the event of an emergency’.

Mr Butler said the information collected during the survey provides important data that will strengthen the community’s hospital campaign.

“This survey was about establishing a baseline, a starting point for where we’re at and what needs to happen,” he said.

“The survey in and of itself does not fix health services, doesn’t put staff in the hospital, but what it does give us is data.

“What came through really strongly is the community’s desire to see Wee Waa Hospital back-up and operating with its nurses, with a VMO (Visiting Medical Officer) and 24/7 services. And that’s really important, that’s something that we haven’t backed off on since May 2023 when the hospital’s hours were reduced.

“That town deserves and its surrounding areas, whether it’s Cuttarbri, Rowena, Merah North, Burren, even though Burren is in a different health district people still go to Wee Waa.

“They deserve to have a hospital that’s operating.

“They shouldn’t have to bypass it and drive on to Narrabri.

“And that’s something that the Health Minister is 100 per cent on board with.

“The Health Minister is not the problem here, the health district and their inability or I don’t know if it’s inability or unwillingness to actually put the people in the jobs to get the hospital open.

“There’s nothing stopping them. They’ve got the budget for the staff.

“They just have not been able to, or are not capable of fixing the problem.”

Previously Mr Butler has given the example of Nyngan’s hospital, which is in the Western NSW Local Health District. Its hours were reduced due to a lack of staff in October 2022, but he said the issue of staffing problems was resolved by January this year.

“They (Western NSW Local Health District ) were brilliant,” explained Mr Butler.

“We did the same thing – we set-up a community hospital working group, they’d come out and meet regularly in Nyngan and they would bring their HR specialists, they would bring their overseas recruitment specialists, they’d talk about what they were doing, how they were going…we have just not had that level of engagement from Hunter New England.”

Mr Butler said: “They asked me to disband the (Wee Waa) community hospital working group party twice.

“I said ‘no’.

“I have got four health districts….and by far Hunter New England is the hardest to deal with,” he said.

“Something needs to change and to that end we’ve got the internal review of decision making that’s taking place and that’s been done by health professionals from another health district.

“We’ve also got the bill that I created to split the health district has been sent to an inquiry.”

The Courier asked Mr Butler if he was confident Wee Waa Hospital could go back to 24/7 operation, with an onsite permanent doctor.

He responded, “Yes”.

“Because there’s no doubt that the minister wants the hospital open.

“He’s given a written commitment, multiple times.

“He’s given it verbally, in-person to the Wee Waa Community Hospital Working Group.”

“There is no plan to close the hospital.”

The survey was conducted by the Wee Waa Collaborative Care Project Group to support the general health needs of the community.

This project is facilitated by Rural Doctors Network (RDN) with support from the NSW Ministry of Health and local partners.

A media statement about the Wee Waa Health Services Survey said: “The survey received 327 responses, with female respondents accounting for the majority of submissions.

“Seventy-two per cent of people said they have difficulty accessing the healthcare they need. Some reasons for these difficulties include the distance people travel to access care, the availability of local services, and health workforce shortages.

“Of particular concern to people in Wee Waa was the limited availability of urgent care services after hours and the additional travel required to Narrabri in the event of an emergency.

“Half of the participants had used a telehealth service in the past 12 months, but many people expressed concerns about the effectiveness of these services. Residents say telehealth is not appropriate in all situations.

“When it is used, more needs to be done to ensure that telehealth doctors understand the rural context of patients.

“Mental health was another area of concern.

“Access to appropriate mental health services is important but not everyone is seeking help. While 30 per cent of respondents needed mental health support in the past 12 months either for themselves or a loved one, only half of these people ultimately accessed a mental health service.

“Many respondents also wanted more information on the range of healthcare services currently available to them in Wee Waa.

“These findings are being considered by local representatives as part of the Collaborative Care program which is facilitated by Rural Doctors Network and supported by the Ministry of Health.

“The project group will meet in May to discuss opportunities to address the issues that have been raised.”

Mr Butler also recently met with Robyn Keeffe from the Wee Waa Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Health was a main topic during their discussions and Mrs Keeffe raised concerns about a potential restructure having a negative impact on the delivery of health services, particularly an eye clinic.

“It’s an important service to the community, to have the eye clinic come to the land council means people don’t have to travel – there’s no public transport.

“The eye clinic has been happening for at least nine years.

“It’s user-friendly for our people for the clinic to happen here at the land council, they’re comfortable coming here.

“It’s hard to get people to look after their health, so you don’t want to put barriers in front of them.”

Following the meeting, Mr Butler’s office said Health Minister Ryan Park was alerted about the eye clinic concerns, and it’s believed a positive resolution has been reached and the clinic will continue.

Mrs Keeffe is a member of the Wee Waa Hospital Working Group, Save Our Wee Waa Hospital Committee and the Collaborative Care Group and she stressed that she wants to see health services in the town restored.

“Hunter New England Health wants to penalise Wee Waa, it’s just not fair,” she said.

“It’s atrocious, it has created so many problems – it seems like every week someone has an issue at the hospital, like they go there and it’s not open.

“It makes people hesitant about going to the hospital.

“The fear factor is people will have to spend hours waiting in emergency in Narrabri, they’re away from home, they’re away from their families, their people.

“If they’re released late from Narrabri hospital there is no transport back and a cab fare can be around $80 to $100,” she said.

“They don’t want to access palliative care in Narrabri.

“And the tele-doctor is not a solution for our people.

“I don’t want to talk to a screen, people aren’t comfortable doing it.

“We need a VMO at our hospital and we need it open.”

HNELHD has been contacted for comment.