Local MPs are celebrating the step towards better rural health after the announcement of the Regional Health Division, but there is more to be done. 

The establishment of the Regional Health Division is said to be a key step towards ensuring the public health system meets the needs and expectations of the communities of regional NSW. 

Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor announced the division on Friday 8 April in response to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry. 

“The Regional Health Division will support the NSW Government’s commitment to bring a renewed focus on recruitment to key healthcare roles in regional NSW and to find innovative ways to support nurses, doctors, allied health practitioners, and the vital support service providers who work in healthcare facilities, to live and work in our regional communities,” Minister Taylor said. 

The new division within NSW Health is seemingly a stepping stone towards the long campaigned-for Department of Rural Health, championed by Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr. 

Dr McGirr has been campaigning for the establishment of an independent department of rural health in NSW and has recently launched a petition calling for a separate department to deal with the enormous and entrenched issues.

“Since launching the petition, I have had a lot of feedback and I believe the situation is worse than I thought,” Dr McGirr said.

“The new division…must now move swiftly to address urgent problems in rural, remote and regional NSW,” he said. 

Dr McGirr said the early indications were that the new Regional Health Division would address some of the issues that he, and other regional MPs, had been consistently raising. 

Among these issues are recruitment, advocacy, a focus on the regions, a response to the rural health inquiry and an overhaul of the Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS).

The division will sit at the top level within the Ministry of Health to advocate regional health issues. 

While some staff will be based in regional NSW, there has been no promise that any office will be positioned west of the Blue Mountains. 

Member for Barwon Roy Butler said he is in support of a larger department, but the news is a step in the right direction. 

“I will speak with the Minister about how this new department can prioritise the implementation of the recommendations of the Rural Health Inquiry, the report is due this month,” Mr Butler said. 

Since the petition was started, one of the biggest issues raised has unsurprisingly been around staffing, according to Dr McGirr. 

“We don’t have months to waste. This new division needs to act quickly to make some real changes…The COVID situation, which is having a substantial impact on staffing, is really proving difficult because it comes on top of years of chronic staffing issues and poor morale,” he said.

“We have to see action and we have to see it in the next few months.”

Under the new Regional Health Division, the Western NSW Local Health District will continue to deliver health services to local communities.