Thousands sign petition to save Batemans Bay Hospital

In the wake of a possible regional South Coast hospital closure, thousands of residents have come out in droves fighting to save the facility.

Members of the campaign at a recent march.

A campaign to save a NSW South Coast hospital has reached a staggering number of supporters, with fears the closure would result in the area becoming the largest regional town without a hospital.

The Batemans Bay Hospital – originally opened in 1929 – is set to close its doors in the coming years once the $260m Eurobodalla Regional Hospital is constructed.

The new level four hospital – 28km south of the existing Batemans Bay Hospital – is set to be a major upgrade from the current facility, featuring an emergency department [ED], eight-bed ICU, increased capacity for chemotherapy, surgical theatres and more.

Now, 14,000 Batemans Bay residents have signed a petition created by the ‘Don’t Close Batemans Bay Hospital’ campaign, aimed at keeping the town’s ED open.

“If this closure does happen, Batemans Bay will become the largest regional NSW town without a hospital,” campaign founder Peter Ryan told The South Coast News.

The campaign signed by thousands currently sits on the NSW parliament website, with Mr Ryan saying the town of 19,000 needed an ED.

“14,000 people is a lot of angry residents,” Mr Ryan said.

While he noted the new hospital was needed given the rapid growth of Eurobodalla, Mr Ryan said it was important to still have an ED in Batemans Bay given the distance.

Posters to sign the petition can be seen around Batemans Bay.

“If someone in the Bay has a heart attack, all of a sudden you have a situation where they need to travel nearly 40 minutes down the highway instead of 10 minutes,” he said.

The NSW Government previously stated the location of the new hospital was picked as it was centric to the Eurobodalla.

“It being centric is fine, but 58 per cent of the Eurobodalla live north of the new hospital location,” Mr Ryan said.

The campaign to keep the hospital open exploded quickly, with the first meeting in early 2024 having more than 400 people in attendance and the petition garnering 12,000 signatures in its first eight weeks.

State member for Bega Dr Michael Holland previously discussed the closure of the Batemans Bay ED, noting the staff would be moved into the new hospital.

The campaign's main photo.

The NSW Government also revealed plans for a new community health hub to be built next to the Batemans Bay Hospital and recently opened an urgent care clinic on the Bay hospital site, which will run in conjunction with the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital.

However, Mr Ryan said it wasn’t enough.

“The urgent care clinic isn’t an emergency department, its essentially another bulk billed GP,” he said.

“Real emergencies will be sent to the new hospital.”

Mr Ryan said campaign members would be happy if the ED was made smaller instead of shutting completely.

“Even if they had just six or seven emergency beds, we would be happy with that,” he said.

“Closing it completely makes absolutely no sense.”

Mr Ryan and his campaign will present their petition to the NSW parliament within the next four weeks.