Public hearings in Narrabri and Tamworth this week are expected to fuel the growing campaign to split the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD).
The NSW Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Community Services will hear from stakeholders in Narrabri on Tuesday 12 August and in Tamworth on Wednesday 13 August, as it considers Member for Barwon Roy Butler’s bill to create a separate New England Health district.
The HNELHD is the largest health district in New South Wales, and the only one that straddles the Great Dividing Range. It serves metropolitan, regional, rural, and remote areas, but is administered from Newcastle.
Critics say this metropolitan control over a district that is significantly rural creates systemic bias in the delivery of healthcare, including a Newcastle-centric approach to resourcing and staffing, with the New England hospitals significantly understaffed and patients frequently sent hundreds of kilometres away from home for basic tests and procedures, such as an X-Ray.
However, Hunter New England Health CEO Tracey McCosker has argued the Newcastle based administration is more efficient. She says it currently costs around $201 million a year to operate the district, and that creating a separate New England district would add $111 million annually to the cost.
Mr Butler rejected that estimate as a distraction from the central issue. “Hunter New England Health’s estimate of an extra $111 million per year to run New England Health should be seen for what it is – a distraction from the real issue of improving country health services,” he said.
“However, the split would be a reallocation rather than a duplication of resources, as the Hunter district should be able to significantly reduce their management structure given they would only have half the area to manage.”
“There’s no doubt that a New England Health district would reallocate resources from Newcastle to Tamworth and other local towns, with an influx of well-paid jobs boosting the inland economy,” Mr Butler said.
“These extra jobs would really just be returning investment to the local towns where it should have been in the first place,” Mr Butler said.
“The New England Health district was described as one of the most efficient in the state before amalgamation, and there’s no reason it couldn’t be again,” Mr Butler said.
“While returning jobs and investment to our region would be very welcome, the main point of my Bill is to improve health services by returning decision-making to local communities,” he said.
“Country communities should be allowed to look after their own.”
Something going on in your part of the New England people should know about? Let us know by emailing newsdesk@netimes.com.au