Inquiry chair Clayton Barr MP heard a lot of evidence criticising MLHD but was not convinced about splitting it up. Photo: NSW Legislative Assembly.
The chair of an inquiry into splitting the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) to create a Griffith-led health service has concluded the move would make healthcare worse, despite hearing widespread criticism of the way the district is run.
Murray MP Helen Dalton introduced a bill to create a new Western Riverina Local Health District, taking decision-making power away from Wagga Wagga and allowing communities such as Griffith to control their own funding and health services.
During the inquiry, witnesses painted a bleak picture of healthcare in the western Riverina, claiming Wagga-based administrators had blocked specialists from working in Griffith, delayed new services and forced patients to travel hundreds of kilometres for treatment.
The bill was referred to a parliamentary committee chaired by Cessnock Labor MP Clayton Barr. Although most public submissions supported the split, Mr Barr said he was not persuaded.
“On balance of all that I was exposed to during the course of this inquiry, I cannot support the separation of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District,” he wrote in the report’s foreword.
“I am left with a firm belief that separation would lead to a decline in health services and health outcomes, not an improvement.”
Health advocates Brendan Catanzariti, Yvonne Turnell and Virginia Tropeano gave evidence to the inquiry and all supported the proposal to split from MLHD. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Mr Barr said one of his biggest concerns was evidence that a new health district would require its own executive and administrative structure, with a claim this could cost $39 million a year.
“That would have to be taken from frontline activities, further reducing the provision of in-practice health services,” he wrote.
However, he also urged MLHD to improve services in Griffith and recognise its importance to surrounding communities.
The committee itself stopped short of recommending for or against the bill, instead recommending it proceed to debate in parliament.
Much of the evidence presented to the inquiry was highly critical of MLHD’s management of Griffith Base Hospital.
The report states that specialists wanting to work in Griffith have allegedly been turned away because no positions were created.
“A number of Griffith-based stakeholders told the committee that whilst there are vacant roles in the Griffith Base Hospital, the district does not create positions,” the report said.
“We heard that without these positions filled, wards such as the rehabilitation ward in the Griffith Base Hospital are not functioning.”
The report also notes evidence from surgeon Dr Warren Hargreaves, who told the committee medical specialists seeking work at Griffith Base Hospital had been told “no position exists”.
Region has repeatedly asked MLHD to respond to these claims but it has declined to do so.
The inquiry found overwhelming support for change in Griffith. A Griffith City Council survey of 791 residents found 62.3 per cent supported splitting the district, while just 2.8 per cent wanted to keep the current structure. The Griffith Base Hospital Medical Staff Council, made up of the hospital’s doctors, also backed breaking away from MLHD.
Mrs Dalton said the findings showed the government was ignoring the people most affected by the current system.
“When 97 per cent of Griffith refused to back the current system and our own doctors voted unanimously to break away, you have to ask who the government is actually listening to,” she said.
“This is why we need our own Western Riverina Local Health District run by people who live here, and now every politician in that parliament has to decide whether they will listen to the people who sent them there.”
The independent MP said the inquiry highlighted the problems facing western Riverina patients, including cancer survival rates well below the national average, patients with broken bones travelling to Wagga Wagga and waiting days for treatment, the loss of Griffith’s 24-hour palliative care service, a maternity unit short of 14 midwives, and a new $250 million Griffith Base Hospital with an unopened rehabilitation ward and no MRI machine.
