Narrabri Shire Council and the Save Our Wee Waa Hospital Group (SOWWH) have expressed disappointment at the lack of progress towards restoring hospital services at Wee Waa, following a public meeting convened by Member for Barwon, Roy Butler, with senior representatives from Hunter New England Health and NSW Health on Monday night.
Despite strong community attendance at a number of meetings and more than 12,000 signatures on a petition calling for the reinstatement of critical services, including 24-hour emergency care, a resident doctor, and the full complement of 18 beds, no clear outcomes have been delivered.
Narrabri Shire Mayor, Darrell Tiemens, said the community has been waiting far too long for solid commitments and is frustrated by the ongoing delays.
“Our community has been advocating for years to see services restored at Wee Waa hospital, yet we continue to walk away from meetings with little more than words,” Mayor Tiemens said.
“The hospital was locked from 5.30pm last night, even as this meeting was being held. That alone shows how urgent this situation is – the people of Wee Waa still do not have access to the emergency care they need, and they deserve answers.”
An Independent Review into Wee Waa Health Service in July identified a series of operational failures and made 20 recommendations to fix them. Following the release of the review, misinformation circulated that Wee Waa Health Service would be downgraded into an Urgent Care model with no doctors.
Roy Butler says he is pleased that Hunter New England Health has committed to returning full services to Wee Waa Health Service.
“The goal of the Implementation Plan is to return a 24/7 Emergency Department with on-site doctors to Wee Waa Health Service,” said Mr Butler.
“Wee Waa Health Service has been slowly degraded over several decades and state governments, and I’m pleased that we now have a plan to turn things around,” said Mr Butler.
Key to reaching these goals is recruitment and retention of nurses and doctors.
Management is being improved at Wee Waa Health Service and staff are being rotated between Wee Waa and Narrabri to keep their skills up to date. Wee Waa Health Service is currently relying on a mix of local and temporary staff, but a recent recruitment drive has produced five candidates and there are hopes the new operating model will continue to build a pipeline of new staff.
“The state funding is in place and the leadership is determined to return 24-hour Emergency Care to Wee Waa Health Service – now we just need the staff to get there,” said Mr Butler.
While the community has seen the implementation plan for the hospital following the completion of the Review of the Wee Waa Health Service in May, there has yet to be any delivery of outcomes from the plan.
Mayor Tiemens said this delay is unacceptable.
“We respect that there are challenges in recruiting staff, but the fact remains that Hunter New England Local Health District must take decisive action now. The community has been patient long enough, we need clear timelines, not more postponements,” he said.
“Council calls on Hunter New England Health Local Health District to immediately outline how and when 24-hour emergency care will be restored, when a doctor will be secured, and when the 18 beds will be reinstated.”
The Save Our Wee Waa Hospital Group said the meeting was billed as an opportunity for residents to hear about the implementation plan to restore services at the hospital; however, many left frustrated.
The panel did not deliver an implementation plan, advising instead that it would not be released until September.
Instead, the community received only an outline of the review’s 20 recommendations, while hopes of hearing how those recommendations would translate into action for the hospital were not met.
Further frustration was expressed at the disbanding of the Wee Waa Hospital Working Party.
Community members also voiced anger at the continuing failure to engage with local doctors to provide Visiting Medical Officer access. Several residents argued that securing an on-site doctor would, in turn, attract nursing staff, addressing one of the main barriers cited by Hunter New England Health for restoring 24-hour operations.
Local farmer Daniel Kahl drew strong applause when he suggested restructuring the hospital’s budget to allow engagement of the local medical practice.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Ryan Park was quizzed about the move to replace the emergency department at Wee Waa with an urgent care service, after a similar service was opened in Goulburn but shut down due to staffing issues in just 10 months. An attempt to introduce a state model of Urgent Care at Armidale was even less successful.
Minister Park claimed the different geographical locations will mean different models, but gave little detail around how the Wee Waa clinic will succeed.
Shadow Minister for Regional Health Gurmesh Singh said locals are worried the model won’t work.
“Urgent care facilities operate successfully when they are close to a bigger hospital, but Wee Waa doesn’t fit the mould with Tamworth being its closest major hub which is two and a half hours away,” Mr Singh said.
“We’ve seen this tried and failed in other areas that were also struggling with health worker shortages, so it doesn’t make sense that the Government thinks this will be any different.”
“The emergency department has only been able to operate during office hours, which is an extremely dangerous situation because emergencies don’t happen on a timetable and every minute counts in a life or death situation.”
“During his estimates hearing, the Minister said the Government is engaging with the community about what the service will look like, but locals have made it clear they need and deserve 24 hour emergency care,” Mr Singh said.
“It’s good to see he is looking at the recommendations of the Independent Review but people can’t afford to wait and there needs to be some immediate intervention to help resolve this crisis including re-engaging with the Save Our Wee Waa Hospital group.”
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