By Mary Ward
The future of a regional health minister in NSW is unclear amid criticism of the decision to split healthcare responsibility between two politicians in this term of government.
The role of regional health minister was created to address extensive failings in the state’s rural hospitals unearthed by the regional health inquiry, which was triggered by a Sydney Morning Herald investigation.
NSW is the only state with a separate regional health minister, held by Bronnie Taylor since late 2021.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The role has been held by Nationals deputy leader Bronnie Taylor since its creation in late 2021. But there are murmurs Taylor, a registered nurse, wants Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s job when he retires at the March election.
Taylor declined to comment on the rumours, saying she was “not thinking about what happens after the election”, and defended the role of regional health minister.
“Regional health is unique, and it needs its own focus; the portfolio of regional health needs to stand,” she said, then added: “That doesn’t mean that the same person can’t be minister for health and minister for regional health.”
NSW is the only state with a separate minister for regional health. The opposition does not have a spokesperson for the portfolio, a decision Taylor criticised.
“It’s hypocritical; you can’t shout loud about the results of an inquiry and not have the foresight or the leadership to say that you want to continue this role,” she said.
NSW Labor health spokesman Ryan Park is MP for Keira, in the Illawarra.
An opposition spokesperson said whether Labor continued the separate regional health minister role would be determined if it won the election.
“We’re focused on health outcomes for the regions as people would expect us to [be] – not ministerial org-charts – that’s our primary focus,” they said. “We will make considered, evidence-based decisions if we win.”
The regional health division’s staff are based at NSW Health’s head office on Sydney’s north shore.
Hazzard, who declined to comment, is understood to have been widely critical of the second health minister role due to the connectedness of the state’s health system, in which regional services often work in partnership with metropolitan hospitals.
A year later, some regional MPs agree. Helen Dalton (independent), the member for Murray in the state’s south-west, said the two ministers created a situation where “you go to Ma, and she tells you to go and ask your Da”.
“I find it really difficult and quite a waste of resources to try to figure out who does what,” she said. “I’d rather just deal with one person and one department.”
Throughout 2022, Hazzard and Taylor both visited and made announcements at regional health facilities in the state, but rarely together.
Dr Joe McGirr, member for Wagga Wagga and a former emergency doctor, said he supported having a regional health minister but believed this should have been accompanied by a separate regional health ministry.
“The bureaucracy would just love to go back under one minister and continue with the ‘run the state from Sydney’ plan,” he said. “I would have had a separate department entirely.”
Taylor said she had not received any criticism from regional communities and health workers about splitting the role.
She defended her decision to create a regional health division to oversee the state’s regional local health districts, rather than a separate department, pointing to the recent introduction of regional Telestroke services and the RPA virtual program as evidence that regional facilities performed better when closely linked with metropolitan resources.
The regional health division’s staff are based at NSW Health’s head office on Sydney’s north shore.
NSW Rural Doctors Network chief executive Richard Colbran could not be drawn to opine on whether the ministerial split had worked, instead stressing the importance of better integrating state and federal health systems.
“How the Ministry of Health is administered is an important issue, but [the network] is more focused on how to build and sustain access to quality healthcare through workforce participation, Aboriginal health and wellbeing, and the intersection of state and federal rural health delivery.”