A petition aimed at getting the NSW Parliament to debate splitting the Hunter New England Health district into two seperate regions has received the backing of New England's community leaders.
On Tuesday, several mayors stood alongside Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, as well as nurses and midwives, to sign the petition started by New England Visions 2030.
Advertisement
While Tenterfield is not in the MP's electorate, the local situation was mentioned, with Glen Innes mayor Rob Banham describing Tenterfield as the end of the line.
READ MORE:
It came after he had described the difficulties Glen Innes faced with services from the Newcastle-based health district.
He then commented that Glen Innes wasn't the end of the line, with Tenterfield being in a worse position.
The petition the councils and Mr Marshall are backing calls on the Legislative Assembly to reinstate the New England Area Health Service, directly employ doctors in emergency departments in the region, and dramatically increase the number of nurses.
Mr Marshall said the petition was the result of sheer frustration as concerns raised by nursing staff, clinicians and community advocates had been ignored.
On a regular basis, he said, patients were bypassing underrescourced hospitals in places like Tenterfield, Inverell and Glen Innes and being sent to Armidale, which then put a strain on that facility.
"This is actually a whole region united, saying 'we've had a gutful and we're sick to the back teeth of being treated like second-class citizens, we're entitled to better and we're not going to stop until we get better."
Mayors Sam Coupland from Armidale, Robert Bell from Uralla, Cr Banham from Glen Innes, and Inverell's deputy mayor Kate Dight all signed the petition on Tuesday.
Two months ago, at a meeting of the Country Mayors' Association of NSW with rural and mental health minister Bronnie Taylor, Tenterfield mayor Bronwyn Petrie had raised the idea of breaking up the enormous Hunter New England Health district.
She said the district was so inflexible with regard to medical transfers, many Tenterfield locals would hop the border to Wallangarra before calling an ambulance, so they would be sent to Toowoomba, two-and-a-half hours away.
In NSW, patients can find themselves sent to Newcastle, more than six hours away.
The petition declares that "centralised decision making has led to an ignorance of what is required in smaller regional communities" resulting in a "lack of adequate services and the requirement for residents to travel long distances to meet their needs".
The institute has set itself a deadline of September 30 to collect all the signatures. It can be signed online at change.org.
