It is the best, most beautiful building anybody has seen.
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The windows gleam, the floors are polished, and all the equipment inside is state-of-the-art, ready for the district patients.
A new hospital. Or at least, a better one. The thing our governments promise will be the key to addressing the issue of vital, immediate and thorough health care in regional Australia.
One Saturday afternoon, there is a scream from the front paddock, and in short order, a family rushes their eldest daughter to the closest emergency room. She has slashed her arm badly in a equipment accident and her brother is compressing the wound as they speed the hour to the largest district hospital.
A push through the emergency room doors, the girl feels faint and is supported into the waiting area.
No doctor. One is rostered, but they have not made an appearance, and cannot be reached on their mobile phone.
The gleaming granite floor of the new emergency room reflects the anguish on her parents’ faces as a kindly nurse makes a phone call. No one can reach the doctor.
The next closest hospital is another hour and a half away. The wound is bad, but not critical enough to call for the rescue chopper. An ambulance could take the girl to the bigger hospital, but the family elects to drive themselves.
It is a scene played out in our satellite communities scattered across New South Wales – district hospitals without the necessary staff member on duty to address cases which merit the attention of a physician or a surgeon. This kind of incident happened to several people in Inverell last weekend.
People travelled, sometimes up to an hour away with serious injuries. Some cases, were lucky enough to be seen almost by accident by a passing doctor, not on call, and not rostered, who were able to address some of the most dire.
It is not enough we have promises and commitments to upgrade our district health service facilities. It is also not enough to rant and complain about our own shared experience of turning up at the ER, only to find a three-hour wait for a doctor, or a road trip to a bigger facility.
What we need is community-driven, creative thinking to embed dedicated physicians and surgeons in our rural hospitals to give our residents the best chance. So where do we begin?