BY DAKOTA TAIT
Submissions made to the Parliamentary Inquiry in Rural and Regional Healthcare have revealed medical services in the Hunter and other regional areas could be teetering right on the edge of a serious crisis.
More than 600 submissions were made to the Inquiry by both staff and patients, including claims that regional hospitals were understaffed, overstretched, and sometimes lacked even basic resources such as bandages.
Port Stephens MP and Shadow Minister for Rural Health, Kate Washington, says Australians do not deserve to miss out on essential services because of where they live.
"We've got hospitals without doctors, nurses under immense pressure, BYO bandages," Ms Washington said. "This is a system that is spinning out of control."
"The consequences for communities across rural and regional NSW are life-threatening, and yet the Government has been ignoring pleas for help for a very long time."
A submission by a Hunter New England Health District staff member criticized their own employer, claiming that staffing levels at Dungog Hospital were "at a minimum", that there was "no clerical support after hours", and that many staff were expected were expected to go beyond the duties of their training and pay grade.
Another submission reads that some patients were struggling to make an appointment in the Port Stephens region, claiming that it required two to three weeks notice just to reach a doctor.
Ms Washington says the submissions made by anonymous health workers were the most damning.
"We have a health system, where people who work in the system are not supported to speak of the problems that they're seeing," Ms Washington said.
"How can we fix it if the people that know best aren't even allowed to speak?"
The Inquiry is due to begin public hearings from 19 March.
