Griffith rural public health forum on May 13 to address damning findings of state parliament rural health report

Alarming accounts of patient care have emerged from a report into the failures of health in rural communities, which officials warned would lose its GPs if action was not taken.

The findings of the parliamentary committee report into NSW government health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote NSW has dropped ahead of a state government health forum in Griffith on Friday.

Murray state Independent MP Helen Dalton said the forum was a chance for locals to discuss the report in depth with senior NSW health officials.

The findings in the report were scathing and found multiple examples of staff shortages and lack of inexperience in medical practices across NSW including the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

The findings included a woman who was forced to travel 100km to Wagga Wagga Base Hospital with her husband after there was no doctor on call or ambulance at her local facility.

“When I got there I presented to emergency, I waited in the waiting room for over two hours, then went into the other triage room where I was for the next 10 hours,’’ she said.

The findings included one patient’s story at Wagga Base Hospital and a nurse from Cootamundra.

A nurse from Cootamundra said that women choosing to give birth locally were often transferred to Young or Wagga Wagga at the last minute due to little or no midwifery availability, “which increases their levels of stress and does not accord with woman-centred care”.

The report has put forward 44 recommendations to the state government to be implemented.

Some of the recommendations include reviewing the Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme, which assist patients with travel and accommodation costs when they seek treatment.

NSW Health will also work with the federal government to implement a 10-year strategy that aims to recruit and retain staff.

Another key recommendation was that NSW Health review the working conditions, contracts and incentives of GPs working as visiting doctors in public health facilities across regional and rural communities.

The report has put forward 44 recommendations to NSW Government to be implemented.

But that has come with criticism from Riverina medical specialist recruitment and retention committee member and doctor Nick Stephenson.

Dr Stephenson said the 44 recommendations by the report were “just overboard”.

“Too many recommendations, when it gets over 10 then just too much to pass on,” Dr Stephenson said.

He questioned how it would be rolled out and highlighted that the NSW health budget was out of control.

“How are these recommendations going to be implemented into regional practices?” Dr Stephenson said.

He was disappointed that his submission was not put forward for the report.

“We made a submission to the report which came late into the inquiry but it is a submission in which we make the point that training needs to be provided to the young and upcoming doctors and nurses,” he said.

Dr Stephenson, a regional medical specialist for over 15 years, welcomed the report but said it failed to take into account the workforce training problem.

“The best way for Australia to improve the rural medical workforce situation is to train nurses and doctors in the rural areas to make sure they can stay and provide the care that is needed,” he said.

Dr Stephenson believes the report was good but needs to address training.

Dr Stephenson flagged that Wagga would have its own conference soon to discuss the issue with industry experts.

Veteran Deniliquin GP Marion Magee, who will be part of the panel in Griffith, said issues were to be followed up from the report, which confirmed country residents “do not have the same access to health care as the city”.

“It nails the issues down well but it needs to show results in terms of the retention of medical health staff in rural areas in NSW,” she said.

A GP in Deniliquin for over 30 years, she believes the demands of a doctor have changed over her time and this is why rural health services are in a dire need of reform.

“It is a different medical culture now to when I started it was routine when I started to work a 72-hour straight shift, now there are a lot more young doctors finding a work life balance now and the hours they want to work will not meet the needs of rural health,” she said.

“We need more doctors to supplement the hours they want to work.”

GP Marion Magee will speak at the health forum at Griffith.

She believes as Dr Stephenson pointed out a need for better training for rural GPs.

“Already good intelligence suggests that medical students if they stay in a rural area to study they will work in the rural areas that is why medical schools in Wagga and Shepparton will be vital,” she said.

Rural and Remote Medical Services chief executive officer Mark Burdack, who will also be part of the forum, is hopeful the community can get a better understanding of the report and the solutions.

“The forum tonight is to present back to the community and try to get a better understanding of the report findings in rural health in NSW,” Mr Burdack said.

Mr Burdack pointed out that rural health system was collapsing and needed the support from the NSW Government.

“A system which is collapsing and seeing 600 rural out of 800 GPs leaving rural communities ...,’’ he said, adding “we will see no more GPs in four years in rural areas” if action was not taken.

He recommends establishing a rural health committee with the state government to respond to rural health issues.

The key message from Mr Burdack “was to set-up a system where health is not set-up in Macquarie St but at regional towns”.

In attendance at the forum at Griffith Regional Theatre at 7pm includes NSW State Health Minister Brad Hazzard (virtual visit), opposition Labor health spokesman Ryan Park and Greens health spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann.