Friday, February 28 marked a momentous occasion for the ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ campaign, with the announcement 10,121 signatures had been collected for the volunteer group’s petition calling for urgent action.
While there is still a way to go, it’s a significant victory in the community group’s hard-fought and ongoing crusade to keep the hospital’s doors open and secure a permanent doctor onsite.
The major milestone and petition target was reached after a day of rallying at Martin Place in Sydney on Thursday, February 27.
On February 28, Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park and Member for Barwon Roy Butler announced an independent review into Wee Waa health services.
“This hospital needs to be opened 24 hours a day with a doctor – that’s what we are demanding,” has been the clear message from Narrabri Shire mayor Darrell Tiemens since the campaign was launched in November last year.
“The hospital closes at 5:30 at night … the snakes don’t stop biting at 5.30, the strokes don’t stop happening, the emergencies don’t stop happening after hours. We want this hospital open 24/7 with a proper doctor, proper facilities and we want every single one of those wards to start being used properly.
“We are taxpayers of NSW and that’s what we’re demanding.”
Cr Tiemens said a group of locals will travel to NSW parliament on March 18 to officially handover the petition full of signatures.
“It has to be officially lodged with parliament, we’re doing that via Roy Butler and the Health Minister,” Cr Tiemens said.
“There’s a small group of us proposing to go down … about 10 locals, which is great.
“And by then, we’ll probably be even up to maybe 11,000 (signatures), which is good because we’ve had a number of people signing the petition but didn’t actually put in their addresses or they were from interstate, so we’re just being very careful in making sure that we have enough numbers,” said Cr Tiemens.
“So, 100 per cent, the signatures can still keep coming in … as long as we get them in time to hand them over to parliament,” said Cr Tiemens.
The petition is asking the Legislative Assembly to:
1. Direct Hunter New England Health to urgently provide Wee Waa Hospital access to an onsite doctor.
2. Restore the 24-hour operation of Wee Waa Hospital, including emergency services, inpatient beds (general medicine, rehabilitation, respite, and palliative care), outpatient services, and primary and community health care services.
3. Require monthly reporting from HNELHD to the Minister for Health, the Member for Barwon, and the Mayor of Narrabri until full 24/7 operation and onsite doctor access are restored.
The magic number of ‘10,000’ signatures is required for the matter to be debated in NSW Parliament.
The target was hit after a volunteer army of dedicated locals headed to Martin Place in Sydney last week, wearing ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ hats and setting up a stand with placards urging NSW residents to sign and support their cause.
The call was put out for Wee Waa residents, past and present, to join the fight and rally signatures in Sydney. And they didn’t disappoint.
The photos featured with this article show the familiar and friendly faces whose connection to the Wee Waa district clearly runs deep.
They might live outside the levee bank, but they consider Wee Waa home. Giving up their time to show they still care deeply for the community where their family and friends live, and the town they hope can continue to grow and thrive.
Local links to newer Wee Waa residents and previous tourists who’ve visited the Cotton Capital also showed their support.
“I was hugely proud of the Wee Waa community,” said Cr Tiemens.
“I was very proud of the people who turned out. Every single one, every single person who attended in Sydney did it off their own bat.”
“I mean, we’re all really busy people and I was just so proud of the number of people that turned out from across Wee Waa, that had Wee Waa connections. It was just beautiful.
“And there were a lot of conversations being had while we were also collecting signatures for the petition – it was just a real sense of community.
“During these times, we might go ‘oh our hospital is not open properly’ and that can get us down, but you know what really restores my spirit and really lifts my spirit is the sense that we live in a great community where we fight for what we believe in.
“And we actually really care about each other.
“It was so positive. We were all on cloud nine after that.
“We were very, very happy and I was immensely proud.
“And it does make you realise that Wee Waa, Narrabri and other places within the shire – we’ve all got a very positive future because I think largely, we are determined and positive people.
“And in the face of adversity, I think we do genuinely care about our communities and our future.
“And, we’re not prepared to sit back and just be polite country people,” said Cr Tiemens.
“When the government says there’s not enough demand for services at Wee Waa Hospital, the numbers just aren’t there – we challenge that and we go, ‘well, the hospital’s been in existence for decades and decades and decades and decades’.
“Many of the people around Wee Waa – they were born there, they’ve had surgery there. It was a very busy thriving hospital. So you can’t tell me that that demand has just suddenly disappeared, and that’s the nonsense that’s coming out of Hunter New England Health and that’s what we’re fighting against.
“We are genuinely fighting against misinformation and trickery.
“Another point about this, the conversations that I’ve had with other Wee Waa people – they have actually been really, really affected by the groundswell of support from Narrabri.
“Huge numbers on the petition were signed by Narrabri people and I think it’s united the entire community in a way that we’ve never seen before.
“And I’m really proud of that because we really care. All of us care about the future of Wee Waa and we care about the future of that hospital. And it was just so great to see so many shopkeepers and so many organisations and so many Narrabri people also fighting for it.
“It’s been a unified front.”
That ‘unified front’ was out in full force last Thursday at Martin Place, when good old-fashioned country spirit made a big impact in the big smoke. The volunteers from the bush meant business and not only did they reach their petition’s target; Darrell Tiemens and Carmel Schwager had the chance to meet Regional Health Minister Ryan Park handing him a letter regarding the Wee Waa Hospital.
“Ryan Park was just wonderful,” said Cr Tiemens.
“I’ve heard good things – that he’s one of the star performers on the front bench of the ministry in NSW.
“I genuinely believe that he is interested in restoring and getting Wee Waa Hospital back to where it should be.
“And he genuinely said that he is interested in supporting our community. I do believe that. You do have to trust him, and he was very welcoming.
“He was very open and honest, and I appreciate that. I think it’s great.
“We had a lot of support from both opposition and government MPs.
“I caught up with a number of MPs from the government, and I also caught up with MPs from the opposition.
“And when you actually explain the situation, they are genuinely concerned about Wee Waa Hospital.”
Cr Tiemens and Mrs Schwager sat in the public gallery of the budget estimates session held at NSW Parliament, sitting with Shadow Minister for Regional Health Gurmesh Singh as Nationals MLC Wes Fang questioned Ryan Park about Wee Waa Hospital.
Mr Fang asked, “Will you guarantee 24/7 emergency coverage for Wee Waa hospital?”. Mr Park responded, “Staffing at Wee Waa Hospital has been a challenge. I want to be open and transparent with the community. It has been something that we haven’t resolved as yet. We are working with both the local member—and I know he is working with community leaders. In May 2023 we reduced the hours from 24 hours, as you indicated, down to 8am ‘til 5.30pm, seven days a week. Outside of these times, ED presentations are redirected to Narrabri.”
Mr Park later said that he needed to “make sure that the presentation levels at that hospital are adequate enough that clinicians can ensure that they are getting enough throughput.
“Clinical health, as you know as someone who has been involved in delivery of health care, does rely on a volume issue to ensure that practitioners maintain their skill level and their knowledge.
“If that volume is not there, that becomes a safety issue and a concern for me. So whilst I understand the community may want something 24/7, I’m not ignoring that.
“I’m just saying (a) the ability to staff it in a way that is safe and (b) the ability to staff it in a way that clinicians themselves continue to get that exposure and volume of patients through there is just a bit challenging.”
Mr Park said, “What we’ve just got to work with the community on now is getting the very best possible service there that meets the needs of the community but, at the same time, is safe and effective for clinicians to get that volume through. I’m not trying to dodge this.”
As previously reported by The Courier, hundreds of people attended two ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ rallies in the town in as many months and an issue raised was how the reduction in hours could automatically lead to a reduction in patient numbers recorded at the hospital.
“We keep getting hit with this catch-22 of ‘well, there’s not enough nurses for a doctor’. Well, the nurses are leaving because there’s no doctor,” was another point Cr Ethan Towns raised at the rally.
Cr Tiemens told The Courier: “They said there’s no doctors available. Well, that’s just fundamentally not true.
“There are not enough nurses available. Well, that’s not true because there’s a fair few Wee Waa nurses actually at Narrabri Hospital. And there’s plenty that have recently resigned as well. So, it’s not that. And then they say, well, it’s got to have throughput or numbers actually going through the hospital. Well, I mean, that’s just nonsense because over the last umpteen decades, that hospital has been a hive of activity.
“Now, with an ageing population and more medical issues and the population is certainly not going backwards – you can’t tell me that suddenly Wee Waa Hospital has dropped to two emergency cases a day.
“It’s simply nonsense. We want that hospital restored.
“They talk about having an inquiry and I welcome an inquiry in the medium term, and I think that is certainly a good thing but it doesn’t solve the immediate issue of tonight at 5:30 there will be potentially a kid bitten by a snake like there was last week or someone having a heart attack … both on the same afternoon.
“And it doesn’t overcome the fact that Narrabri Hospital is almost full to capacity.
“Now you can’t tell me that there’s no demand for it. I just do not believe that. It’s been a busy hospital for a very long time and that’s what kind of makes me cross.”
At previous rallies, Cr Tiemens has also highlighted the farming communities that rely on Wee Waa Hospital.
“It’s not just the community of Wee Waa – it’s Pilliga, it’s Burren Junction, it’s Merah North, it’s even Rowena,” said Cr Tiemens.
“All these towns that rely, thousands of people, who rely on this hospital having a functioning emergency department and having a functioning hospital,” he said.
“This town has got two high schools, it’s got three primary schools and yet we don’t have a hospital that is open properly, that even has a doctor – it’s a disgrace,” he said.
“Such a great hospital languishing and going to waste.
“I saw ward after ward with empty beds, great equipment and not a single patient in the hospital.”
“I can tell you that the taxpayers of NSW, they would be absolutely disgusted if they saw empty beds and empty wards.”
A question raised at the January rally was, “Why aren’t the four doctors that live in Wee Waa, why aren’t they employed at the local hospital?”.
Mr Tiemens said it remains an unanswered question.
“It’s still an unanswered question,” he said. “And I’ll tell you what else is an unanswered question – those four doctors are all assigned to be able to do visits to patients in the aged care facility in Wee Waa and yet they’re not allowed to work within the hospital system. So, it’s just maddening to me that that is the case, that the four doctors there cannot support patients in Wee Waa and beyond.
“Remembering that there are 18 beds at Wee Waa Hospital.
“Remembering that there is not a single patient there overnight at all.
“The beds are empty, they’re state of the art, it’s a great hospital.
“If members of the parliament and their local suburbs were treated the way Wee Waa has been treated by Hunter New England Health, there would be mass protests and the local politicians and bureaucrats would be booted out. The indignity of what is taking place in Wee Waa is shocking.
“Last week there was a man who had a heart attack and a kid who had a snake bite …they both had to be hauled off to Narrabri and beyond because Wee Waa couldn’t handle it.”
Cr Tiemens said he remains optimistic the community-led ‘Save Our Wee Waa Hospital’ campaign will make a difference and it’s committed army of volunteers won’t back down.
“I’m always going to be an optimist,” he said. “It’s going to be tough. We’ve got things planned for the next six months.
“We’re not going away. Are we obsessed? Absolutely obsessed.
Will we make it uncomfortable for the bureaucrats? Absolutely.
“We’re not going to stop.”
On Friday, February 28 Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park and Member for Barwon Roy Butler announced an independent review into the Wee Waa health services and said access to healthcare was at the heart of it.
The independent review will be led by subject matter experts and focus on the current and former service models and make recommendations to ensure residents can access safe, sustainable services now and in the future, said the statement.
The group will be comprised of independent experts with a range of experience across in nursing, midwifery, safety, aboriginal, and rural and regional health areas.
The review will consider the health needs of the local community, workforce recruitment and retention, decisions around services and models of care. The review is expected to begin in March 2025 and deliver a report to Government in mid-2025.
This announcement follows the introduction a bill to the NSW Parliament last week by Member for Barwon Roy Butler to consider splitting the Hunter New England Local Health District.
This bill secured NSW government support to refer it to an inquiry and the Parliamentary Committee for community services will now investigate the matter.
“Like all regional and rural towns, it’s important to me that the Wee Waa community has access to the health care services they need and this independent review is about making sure we’re getting to the bottom of that,” said Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park.
“Improving access to care in our regional, rural and remote communities is one of my key priorities as Regional Health Minister and today’s announcement is an important milestone for healthcare in the Wee Waa community.
“I would like to thank the Member for Barwon Roy Butler for his advocacy in ensuring the voices of Wee Waa residents are at the forefront of shaping future health initiatives.”
Member for Barwon Roy Butler said, “I acknowledge the minister has been unwavering in his support for the restoration of health services at Wee Waa Hospital. For the people who depend upon access to services at Wee Waa Hospital this situation has been going on for far too long. The independent review, and the separate parliamentary inquiry, will examine the decision-making processes of the Hunter New England Local Health District executive that led to the current reduction in services and provide a roadmap for the restoration of health services at Wee Waa Hospital.
“I strongly urge the Hunter New England Local Health District to engage openly in both processes, in the interim I encourage the local health district to fill the vacant nursing and VMO positions at Wee Waa Hospital.”
Below is a transcript from the NSW parliament website of the Wee Waa hospital being discussed during budget estimates.
The CHAIR: Welcome back, everyone. It being 11.15 a.m., we’ll recommence. We’ll start with questions from the Opposition,
The Hon. WES FANG: Minister, thank you for attending today. Will you guarantee 24/7 emergency coverage for Wee Waa hospital?
Mr RYAN PARK: Staffing at Wee Waa Hospital has been a challenge. I want to be open and transparent with the community. It has been something that we haven’t resolved as yet. We are working with both the local member—and I know he is working with community leaders. In May 2023 we reduced the hours from 24 hours, as you indicated, down to 8.00 a.m. ’til 5.30 p.m. seven days a week. Outside of these times, ED presentations are redirected to Narrabri. Patients presenting to Wee Waa who needed admission will obviously receive inpatient care at Narrabri. We are making recruitment efforts for the vacancies. There is what I’ve loosely called a working party established with the local MPs, local community leaders and local HAC health representatives around how we can try to accelerate that and what we can try to do to get that resolved. Mr Sloane, as the Deputy Secretary of Regional Health, has initiated a Collaborative Care Program, which was facilitated by the Rural Doctors Network to review the planning and delivery of public health services to the community. That piece of work is trying to identify what we really need there and then roll it out. But vacancies have been a challenge in Wee Waa. I know it’s something that the shadow Minister for Regional health, Gurmesh, has raised with me. I know it’s something that Roy Butler has raised with me multiple times. I’m not going to pretend I have resolved it yet, but I’m acutely aware of the issue because of community representations, shadow Minister representations and the local MP Roy Butler’s representations.
The Hon. WES FANG: Thank you for that, Minister. In your answer you said that you’re working out what’s needed. The community needs 24/7 care in their emergency department. You don’t need a working group to determine that.
Mr RYAN PARK: I’ve just got to make sure that the presentation levels at that hospital are adequate enough that clinicians can ensure that they are getting enough throughput. Clinical health, as you know as someone who has been involved in delivery of health care, does rely on a volume issue to ensure that practitioners maintain their skill level and their knowledge. If that volume is not there, that becomes a safety issue and a concern for me. So whilst I understand the community may want something 24/7, I’m not ignoring that. I’m just saying (a) the ability to staff it in a way that is safe and (b) the ability to staff it in a way that clinicians themselves continue to get that exposure and volume of patients through there is just a bit challenging.
The Hon. WES FANG: I accept that, Minister. I’m just trying to understand how you’re managing some of those challenges. In relation to Wee Waa again, how many of the health staff have taken up the Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme there?
Mr RYAN PARK: I don’t know—let me just check if I’ve got that specific number. I don’t have that as a site-specific—Luke, you don’t?
LUKE SLOANE: I think we’d have to take that one on notice.
Mr RYAN PARK: I’d have to take that one on notice.
LUKE SLOANE: I can confirm that all the vacancies there, when they’re recruiting, are advertised with incentives.
The Hon. WES FANG: Will the hospital remain open even outside of the emergency-hour times?
Mr RYAN PARK: What we’ve just got to work with the community on now is getting the very best possible service there that meets the needs of the community but, at the same time, is safe and effective for clinicians to get that volume through. I’m not trying to dodge this.
The Hon. WES FANG: No, I appreciate that.
Mr RYAN PARK: I’m just being honest that I have to make that decision as well.
The Hon. WES FANG: You indicated that Narrabri is effectively the overflow for Wee Waa when the emergency department is shut. Have you provided additional resources—doctors, nurses et cetera—to Narrabri in order to cover the surge that they’ll have?
Mr RYAN PARK: What I know and what I’m advised, Wes, is that since the change in operating hours at Wee Waa—and Luke can jump if any of this is not accurate. I talked about this recently with the local MP. There has been an average increase of around 1.17 presentations a day to Narrabri—so, for argument’s sake, not quite two. That’s from the wider Wee Waa region, including Burren Junction and Pilliga. There has been a negligible increase in patients from the Wee Waa region being admitted to Narrabri. Just Wee Waa is about 0.6 admissions per day on average, so it hasn’t seen that volume. I don’t have the staffing profile of Narrabri in front of me, but I understand that that is also an area that would be linked with incentives. The volume of increase hasn’t been huge.
The Hon. WES FANG: Maybe you can take it on notice.
Mr RYAN PARK: Yes, I am happy to.
The Hon. WES FANG: The shadow Minister, Gurmesh Singh, is down the back with some representatives from the Wee Waa community. I encourage you to meet with them after you’ve finished at the hearing. As you’ve said, Gurmesh and the community has raised concerns with you. What would you say to the community if the unthinkable happens: Something happens outside of those emergency hours, and somebody loses their life because the emergency department isn’t staffed 24/7?
Mr RYAN PARK: I would say to the community—living in a community where I’m from, where we had round-the-clock ED at Bulli—that the previous Government and others reduced the hours, and I had to explain that to the community. The way I explained that to the community is that health facilities have to be safe. They have to meet the needs of the community. Part of making sure that they’re safe is ensuring that the staff have the patient throughput and diversity of patient conditions to ensure that they keep up their skills and knowledge. What I can’t do is open up facilities that don’t have that volume, and put at risk patients who may present there believing that the staff have adequate resources, skills and knowledge to do that. At the moment, we are struggling to recruit in that part of New South Wales. I’m not putting my hands up and saying, “I quit.” I’m not doing that at all. I’m really working closely with both my own agency and the local member and, to be fair, representations made by Gurmesh and the community broadly. I have read and am paying close attention to them. I’ve just got to make sure that those services can be delivered safely.
The Hon. WES FANG: I appreciate that. I’m just not sure that that’s going to be sufficient for the community of Wee Waa. If you wouldn’t mind, I know you took some of the numbers around Narrabri on notice. Would you mind taking on notice some of the overflow issues that go to some other surrounding hospitals—like Tamworth et cetera—that have come from Wee Waa?
Mr RYAN PARK: Sure.
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