MP claims health system left town without a doctor for a month

Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall told parliament he spoke with "a profound sense of sadness and desperation" about what he called a "negligent and downright dangerous" lack of doctors in his region.

He said the Glen Innes, Armidale and Inverell hospitals have all gone periods in the last week without any doctor available for their emergency room at all.

In Glen Innes' case, it's gone without one for the better part of a month.

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He said staff of the local health district are scrambling to fill shifts with locum doctors from out of town.

"Hopefully, they can find them [doctors] for the next month," he said.

"I have grave fears that the failure of the health service to properly resource or find locums for our hospitals is placing unreasonable expectations and pressures on nursing and allied health staff and that it could result in a tragic and preventable misfortune to a patient or a member of the community."

A spokesperson for Hunter New England Health assured the community that they could still attend emergency rooms and get care.

Every hospital in the health district has a "robust" business continuity plan to direct operations in the instance that medical coverage isn't available onsite, or if patients need a higher level of care.

"There have been a handful of days of coverage, in 2022, but it hasn't been consistent since the beginning of the year," she said.

"We are always working to get coverage at our emergency rooms. "

Mr Marshall's private member's statement came on the same day that thousands of the state's nurses walked off the job.

Members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association went on strike on Tuesday, despite a ban by the Industrial Relations Commission. The union demanded the state offer wage increases and increase staffing ratios.

Union organiser and nurse Nola Scilinato agreed that the hospital and the region was in crisis, but it was up to the state government, not the local health district, to solve it.

She said nurses live in a state of heightened anxiety when there isn't a doctor available to back them up.

"People come to the emergency because they're usually sick. They don't come with a cold, they come because they need urgent treatment," she said.

Mr Marshall said the strike was the "last-gasp plea" of an overstretched nursing workforce, which he said was also "on the brink of collapse".

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The MP flagged on Tuesday that he had made urgent representations to both the NSW Health Minister and Minister for Regional Health about the Glen Innes hospital.

He said the system required "urgent short-term action be taken".

Glen Innes is approaching a month without a single general practitioner or visiting medical officer on duty at the town's emergency room, "because the local health district has been unable to supply or contract even locum doctors to fill that roster," he said.

"This is absolutely unacceptable in my view and the community's view. This is negligent and downright dangerous and it is not good enough in this day and age."

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