Community members have expressed their ‘extreme disappointment’ following the release of a review of Wee Waa Health Service.
“Our group met on Monday night, and everyone is extremely disappointed and disheartened with the review,” said Save Wee Waa Hospital committee member Carmel Schwager.
Mrs Schwager said the review’s recommendations were ‘a blow after months of advocacy’ but the volunteer committee will continue to ramp up its campaign and hold a town hall meeting on July 29.
“Our community rallied, we held meetings, we gathered more than 12,000 signatures – all calling for the reinstatement of a 24/7 hospital with an on-call doctor in town,” Mrs Schwager said. “This report doesn’t deliver that. An ‘urgent care’ clinic is not the outcome we’ve fought for, and it’s not one we will accept. Our hospital is a mere shadow of what we had in Wee Waa twenty years ago and we will continue the fight.”
“What a disappointing result from the inquiry into the Wee Waa Health Service,” added Save Wee Waa Hospital committee member Jono Phelps.
“What else should one expect when you have four bureaucrats that make up the panel who would have no idea about the Wee Waa community’s needs,” he said.
“The Wee Waa community deserve and needs a hospital to service the town and the large rural community surrounding, which is dotted by industrial sites with large machinery. We hope not, but accidents do happen.”
Narrabri Shire mayor Darrell Tiemens said, “There are no assurances that urgent medical support will be available after-hours.
“That leaves residents dangerously exposed.
“People shouldn’t have to travel 40 kilometres to Narrabri or more than 200 kilometres to Tamworth in the middle of the night to access care in an emergency,” added Cr Tiemens, who is also a member of the Save Wee Waa Hospital group.
Narrabri Shire Council said one of its main concerns is a recommendation to replace the emergency department with a nurse-led urgent care model, supported by virtual medical input.
“This model is designed to treat minor injuries and illnesses but lacks the capacity for overnight or critical care. There is no clear definition of the proposed ‘extended hours’ of operation, no timetable for implementation, and no guarantee of staffing levels beyond 5:30pm,” said a media statement released by NSC.
Member for Barwon Roy Butler said, “The Independent Review vindicates the community’s long-standing concerns about Hunter New England Health, particularly in relation to an historic lack of leadership, poor culture and operational issues.”
The review also identified ‘the absence of effective two-way communication between Hunter New England Local Health District, staff, community and other stakeholders’.
On Friday, Mr Butler held a press conference out the front of Wee Waa Hospital to announce the release of the review and provided a media statement and copies of the report.
“The minister has given me permission to release that today to the community,” he said.
The media statement said, “An Independent Review into Wee Waa health services instigated by Member for Barwon, Roy Butler, has uncovered previous leadership and operational failings within Hunter New England Health, while also making recommendations to return the Health Service to 24-hour operations.
“On 8 May 2023, staff shortages led to Wee Waa Health Service’s emergency department operating hours being reduced to 8am – 5:30pm.
“In response, Mr Butler introduced a Bill into NSW Parliament to split Hunter New England Health into a Newcastle-based and an inland health district. He also lobbied for this Independent Review of Wee Waa health services.
“The Review identified ‘a misalignment between executive leadership and senior managers in understanding the scope of services available at Wee Waa’, ‘serious leadership instability’ within Wee Waa Health Service leading to a ‘deterioration of workplace culture’, ‘ambiguous treatment protocols and escalation pathways’, ‘incomplete documentation’ and a lack of staff education. The result has been difficulty retaining staff and both nurses and patients from Wee Waa choosing to work and be treated in Narrabri.
“The Review makes 20 recommendations, including: A single service model covering both Wee Waa and Narrabri health campuses that would improve leadership and recruitment.
– Updating the old Wee Waa Emergency Department to an Urgent Care model offering patients the same care as before. It would rely on highly trained nurses supported by doctors (both in-person and virtual) in a 24-hour environment. The new language is clearer about the Health Service’s capacity (serious injuries can be stabilised at Wee Waa but for decades have been transferred to a larger facility).
– Returning a palliative care bed along with sub-acute and non-acute beds,” said the statement released by Mr Butler’s office.
Mr Butler said, “The Review also maps out a pathway to resolve these issues and return Wee Waa Health Service to the full 24-hour service that the community deserves.
“The single service model for Wee Waa and Narrabri will allow resources to be shared and will help attract staff by increasing the scope of practice and allowing career progression.
“If this review is the diagnosis, the implementation plan is the treatment where the action occurs. I will be involved with the implementation plan and will be sure it considers community concerns before the Minister signs off on it.
“This is a line-in-the-sand moment that should be the start of a more productive relationship between Hunter New England Health and the Wee Waa community. I extend my thanks to NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for commissioning this Independent Review at my request.”
Wee Waa community members Kellie Wheeler and Bree Carlin reading the review.
In response to a question about the timeline, Mr Butler said: “that will be set in the implementation plan. I don’t have the timeframe for the implementation of the plan but that will be set, and all of this will be done through consultation with Wee Waa community as well.”
Mr Butler said he understood community members were frustrated and praised residents who have rallied to improve health services.
“First and foremost, I thank them for their incredible patience,” he said. “This has gone on way too long. It’s totally unacceptable that the hospital hasn’t been open.
“Community advocacy is incredibly important.”
Mr Butler said, “It’s unacceptable that anyone in NSW can’t access the health services they should be able to access when we’ve got a facility here which could be operating, which could have patients in it, which could be 24/7, it should be. It’s funded to do that. This is not a money issue. This is not a budget issue. This is about filling positions and getting the hospital open and providing services to the Wee Waa community.”
Mr Butler was asked about how a Wee Waa resident who feels ‘frustrated and anxious about getting sick and wants a doctor at their hospital, how can you make them can feel better’ (considering the current situation)?
“What I can tell you is that the way the hospital operated, and I’m not talking about May of ‘23, I’m talking about when we had a better staffing establishment, when we had services operating here, once this implementation plan is on the ground and happening, I’m pretty confident that we’re not going to see any real change in the patient experience from what people used to see 10 years ago.
“They’ll come into this facility, they’ll be triaged, assessed, they’ll either be dealt with here or if it’s a more serious injury or illness, life threatening, for example, they’d be taken to another facility which has been the practise for decades.”
Council is calling for community consultation before changes to Wee Waa Hospital are finalised. In a media statement, NSC said it welcomed the release of the review as an important step in the long campaign to restore healthcare services in the town — but said the recommendations ‘fall short of what the Wee Waa community needs and expects’.
Mayor Darrell Tiemens said council had hoped the review would respond to clear and consistent community concerns, particularly the loss of 24-hour hospital services. Instead, the proposed model fails to address critical service gaps and risks entrenching a downgraded level of care.
“The community has waited a long time for this review and we acknowledge its release is a key milestone,” Cr Tiemens said. “But we are concerned that unless Hunter New England Health and the NSW government work closely with the community from here, the result will be a plan that does not meet local needs.”
Council pointed to its main concerns – ‘the recommendation to replace the emergency department with a nurse-led urgent care model, supported by virtual medical input’.
“There are no assurances that urgent medical support will be available after-hours,” Cr Tiemens said. “That leaves residents dangerously exposed. People shouldn’t have to travel 40 kilometres to Narrabri or more than 200 kilometres to Tamworth in the middle of the night to access care in an emergency.”
Council said ‘the review also does not recommend reinstating an on-call doctor at Wee Waa Hospital, instead suggesting virtual care and partnerships with general practices’. Council believes this is inadequate for a rural town with significant distances to major hospitals. Inpatient services are also slated to be significantly reduced. Despite the hospital being built to accommodate 18 beds, the review proposes opening only four to five sub-acute and non-acute beds, including one for palliative care, said the NSC statement.
“This model falls well short of restoring the hospital to a functional and sustainable level,” Cr Tiemens added. “At best, it maintains the status quo — and at worst, it formalises the slow dismantling of services that the community has been fighting against.”
Council is also concerned that the review compares Wee Waa to towns such as Bulli, Pambula, Wauchope and Wentworth — locations with major hospitals less than 45 minutes away. Wee Waa, by contrast, is more than 2.5 hours by road from Tamworth Hospital, making local services not just a convenience but a necessity. Council is urging the NSW government and Hunter New England Health to work collaboratively with local residents, health professionals and stakeholders to find a solution that delivers real, round-the-clock care.
“This is a matter of equity and safety,” Cr Tiemens said. “Wee Waa is a growing town with two high schools, three primary schools, and a large farming community. A nurse-led clinic with limited hours is not enough. Council and the community will continue to advocate for the reinstatement of 24-hour emergency care and the return of a doctor to Wee Waa Hospital.”
Cr Tiemens spoke to media on Friday following Mr Butler’s press conference along with Cr Ethan Towns, they were supported by other residents and Save Wee Waa Hospital committee members.
The local council representatives hadn’t received a copy of the review before the press conference but strongly expressed the Save Wee Waa Hospital campaign’s mission to restore services.
“What we want is a VMO (Visiting Medical Officer) that lives in the local community, that is on call for emergencies, that is able to service the local needs of the community,” said Cr Tiemens.
“The community does want to see some action because what bureaucrats are very good at is talking, and we want less talk and more action,” added Cr Tiemens.
“At 5:30 tonight, that hospital will still remain shut, there will still be 18 empty beds.”
The representatives showed their gratitude to locals who have stood up to fight for the town’s hospital and made submissions to a NSW parliamentary inquiry about their experiences with the health service.
This is the same inquiry that received a flood of submissions from local residents, community groups and organisations, councils, peak bodies, business and agricultural representatives, professionals, stakeholders in the health sector, and other members of the public.
“The heroes of this are actually the volunteers and the nurses and the ambos and the people around town, the farmers, various volunteers who’ve given up, not just a few hours but tens, if not hundreds of hours dedicated to this fight.
“It just goes to show what you can actually do if you collectively get together and you say ‘enough is enough’, we are going to fight for our small towns and villages..”
“There’s nothing like Wee Waa…when we see something that needs to be done, people around here stand up for it,” added Cr Towns.
“We’re basically a town of volunteers that are out to help each other.”
New dates have been set for a public hearing being held as part of the NSW parliamentary inquiry looking at a proposal to split the Hunter New England Health District into two separate districts – Hunter Local Health District and the New England North West LHD.
A hearing will be held in Narrabri on August 12 and Tamworth August 13.
The hearing was scheduled for June 16 but had to be postponed after committee members and staff were unable to travel due to an aircraft engineering issue.
Following the release of the review, Minister for Health Ryan Park’s office shared a media release.
“The independent review into Wee Waa Health Service has concluded, with the final report delivering 20 recommendations for Hunter New England Local Health District. Led by a review team of experienced health leaders – Josh Carey, Alison Broadbent, Mark Zacka and Brendon Cutmore – the process included visits to Wee Waa during April and May, in-depth conversations with community members, staff, and stakeholders, and a review of successful models of care from across NSW.
“The recommendations aim to ensure the Wee Waa community and surrounding areas have access to safe, high-quality care. They focus on five key areas: Models of care · Recruitment and retention of health workers · Community engagement · Integrated care and partnerships · Aboriginal health.
“The report recognises that community voices are central to shaping the future of health care in Wee Waa. As part of this work, Hunter New England Local Health District will soon begin recruiting members for a new local health committee. This group will help guide next steps and will reflect the diversity and strengths of the local community.
“Anyone with an interest in local health is encouraged to get involved. Details on how to express your interest will be shared shortly.”
Minister for Health Ryan Park said “I want to thank the review panel for the time they dedicated to gaining a deep understanding of Wee Waa Health Service and the needs of the local community.
“I’m pleased this important work has been completed and provides a clear path forward, and I thank the staff and the local community for their support.
“While there is more work to be done, I know we’re on the right track and we would not even be at this point without the strong advocacy from the Member for Barwon Roy Butler.
“I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Roy and I look forward to seeing Hunter New England Local Health District work closely with the Wee Waa community as they develop and implement their response to the recommendations.”
Chief executive, Hunter New England Local Health District, Tracey McCosker PSM said, “We welcome the recommendations from the review and thank the expert panel for their thoughtful and thorough work.
“It was workforce challenges that initially led to temporary services changes at Wee Waa Health Service in 2023, but it also highlighted the need to review our models of care and ensure the services we’re delivering are fit for purpose and aligned with community needs.
“This review provides us with a valuable opportunity to strengthen how care is delivered in Wee Waa, now and into the future. Our immediate focus is on recruitment, and we’ll be launching a new campaign shortly.
“At the same time, we’re beginning planning and community consultation to progress the broader recommendations. We’re committed to working closely with the community throughout this process and keeping everyone informed as we move forward.”
