Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr has thrown his support behind Wagga Council’s call to add more paediatric services to Wagga Base Hospital. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr has said he will back Wagga Council’s push to have more paediatric services in the city.
During Wagga Wagga City Council’s ordinary meeting this week, councillor Karissa Subedi put forward a notice of motion (NoM) calling for Wagga to have its own paediatric emergency department as well as a specialist clinic to treat patients needing an overnight hospital stay.
The NoM was passed unanimously by the council and staff will now contact NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park and other parliamentarians to get the ball rolling.
Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, who has long worked with the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, said he would also be throwing his support behind the motion.
“Health services for kids are really, really important, and it’s a real challenge for people in rural and regional areas,” Dr McGirr said.
“It disrupts families when kids have to go to the city for treatment, and we should do all we can to try and minimise that.
“Not only that, it disrupts the other kids, it disrupts income, it just becomes a really stressful experience.”
Dr McGirr said Wagga was blessed to have 13 paediatric practitioners, but admitted separate emergency room services for children and specialist outpatient services (SOPS) were vital for regional patients.
“In Wagga we have, I think, 13 specialist pediatricians, which is probably double the number we have in any other regional centre in the state,” he said.
“That’s great, and I want to acknowledge the work that they’ve done to build up the services. But it is probably time that we had a special area in the emergency department for treating kids.
“I think the emergency department’s busy enough now that the care for the kids would be better if they had a separate area. I think that’s the next step.
“We should be expanding outpatient services for kids, for sure. We have a really good opportunity to better coordinate the care by establishing those outpatient services at the hospital, and that would reduce the need for families to travel.”
As the conversations and potential plans for paediatric services in Wagga continue, Dr Joe said he will continue to support the effort.
“I will certainly be supporting WWCC in this,” he said.
“It’s a very important part of what I’ve been working on for 30 years, which is building rural health services and building those services in Wagga.
“We need to support our primary health care network, and this is part of that.
“That’s an important part of my rural health plan so that people in rural communities can access care, as much care as possible, in their hospital as well.”
