Doctors have backed Helen Dalton’s push for a separation. Photo: Helen Dalton MP Facebook.
Doctors and specialists at Griffith Base Hospital have backed a push by Murray MP Helen Dalton to separate from the Wagga-based bureaucracy Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).
At present, MLHD makes decisions on staffing, services and resourcing for the Griffith facility. The hospital’s Medical Staff Council chair Howard Fan wants this to change.
“Our position is based on years of first-hand experience and concern about the lack of local autonomy, inadequate resourcing and missed opportunities to develop and expand services tailored to the Griffith community,” Dr Fan wrote in a letter to Ms Dalton, seen by Region.
“This includes restoring surgical services currently lost to Wagga Wagga, expanding maternity, paediatrics and chronic disease care, and growing specialist outpatient clinics.
“Such expansion would not only improve patient outcomes and reduce travel burdens for families, but also help stem the loss of patients being referred unnecessarily to Wagga Wagga or beyond.
“Local control would enable smarter, more transparent allocation of resources — directing funding to where it is most needed, rather than competing with larger centres whose size and proximity to management allow them to dominate budgetary decisions.”
Mrs Dalton introduced the Health Services Amendment (Splitting of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District) Bill 2025 to parliament in February, which seeks to create a separate bureaucracy to govern hospitals in the Riverina’s western towns.
“If you live in Murray, the Murrumbidgee Local Health District isn’t local at all, because it’s effectively run from Wagga,” Mrs Dalton said.
“It may as well be run from Melbourne.”
Helen Dalton wants a ‘Western Riverina Local Health District’. Photo: Helen Dalton MP Facebook.
While the Griffith hospital services a surrounding population of 80,000, there are some basic services it does not provide.
If you require treatment for a broken bone, for example, you need to make a two-hour trip to Wagga to access emergency orthopaedic services.
Region has reported on various issues that plagued the local health district over the past five years, including the high executive staff turnover rate in the Griffith hospital and controversies around maternity wards at Cootamundra Hospital.
While Dr Fan understands structural changes such as this would come with its own set of challenges, he thinks medical staff are more likely to remain in work environments when they feel heard.
Other regional centres across Australia have successfully gone through similar structural changes, such as the division of health services in the Hume region into Albury-Wodonga Health (which services the Ovens Murray region) and Goulburn Valley Health (which serves the Goulburn Valley area).
“These changes are temporary and manageable compared to the long-term benefits of a fit-for-purpose governance structure,” he wrote.
MLHD told Region that splitting the health services would have a “detrimental impact” on existing healthcare pathways, as staffing and services were shared across the network to ensure patients received appropriate care, as there was a “nationwide staffing shortage”.
“[We] would see more patients needing to travel further from their homes to access appropriate care,” a spokesperson said.
“Removing those arrangements would require existing services to be replicated, adding significant costs.
“MLHD continues to deliver high-quality healthcare and support to all our patients, no matter where they live or what level of care they require.”
