The reuse of water to green hospital grounds is admirable, but not as important as recruiting specialists. Photo: NSW Health Pathology.
If you want to know why One Nation overwhelmingly won Griffith at the recent Farrer by-election, just look at the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) Facebook page and its recent media coverage.
While the town is crying out for a paediatrician, orthopaedic surgeons and the opening of its rehabilitation ward, MLHD’s focus seems to be on emissions reductions, reconciliation initiatives and creative art spaces.
The Wagga-based bureaucracy exemplifies what many rural residents see in government: virtue signalling while neglecting local needs and priorities. Pauline Hanson’s populist party is reminding people of this — and cashing in at the ballot box.
This week, a WIN News report had MLHD proudly showcasing Griffith Hospital’s sustainability achievements — installing solar panels, reusing water to green hospital grounds and rolling out 22 EV charging points for its vehicle fleet.
“We’re really trying to respond to community demand to really minimise our environmental footprint,” MLHD sustainability lead Kym Witney-Soanes said.
While all these things may be worthwhile, the “community demand” I hear about is different.
It’s the little boy waiting two years to see a paediatrician in Albury after MLHD failed to replace the brilliant Professor Maxwell Hopp. It’s the woman driving three hours from Hillston with a broken arm because Griffith still lacks full-time orthopaedic services. It’s patients waiting in Wagga after surgery because the rehabilitation ward at Griffith Hospital remains unopened more than a year after it was promised.
MLHD has argued it is doing its best to recruit specialists, but it’s too hard to attract doctors to rural areas.
But that claim was blown to pieces during the recent parliamentary inquiry into whether Griffith Hospital should split from the local health district.
Senior doctors told the inquiry that specialists willing to relocate to Griffith had been turned away because MLHD refused to create positions at the already short-staffed hospital.
“There have been … cases where specialists have contacted us seeking to work in the hospital and have been told that no position exists — in particular, a gastroenterologist and a geriatrician, who would both be very valuable members of the staff,” Dr Warren Hargreaves said.
“They were both told that no position exists for them, so they can’t be hired.”
Dr Narayanan Jayachandran said he was also aware of orthopaedic surgeons who are ready to come to Griffith but were effectively blocked by the Wagga establishment.
Region asked MLHD on multiple occasions whether these assertions were true, but it has consistently refused to provide answers.
Instead, MLHD had plenty of time to tell the public about its 22 EV charging points and its commitment to National Reconciliation Week.
Nobody is suggesting hospital administrators should not try to reduce waste or acknowledge the Stolen Generation. But when basic healthcare gaps remain unfilled, sustainability announcements and feel-good social media posts can land badly.
In Griffith and across the Riverina, many residents increasingly feel that government institutions speak a different language to the communities they are supposed to serve.
That frustration did not create the One Nation vote on its own — but it helps explain why so many people were willing to send a message.
