The findings of a parliamentary inquiry physically manifested themselves in front of me, in the form of a lovely, very helpful lady in scrubs.

Like her, every member of staff I talked to after I presented at Tamworth hospital - without exception! -- said more or less the following phrase:

"There's a health crisis going on at the moment, it might be a bit of a wait."

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It's hard to think of a more damning sentence in an emergency health institution, really. If you're not confident in sorting out my (minor) problem in a reasonable timeframe, what hope for complex mental health patients or those with chronic complaints?

Clearly the healthcare system has lost the faith of its staff.

The health crisis is something we in the media have reported again and again, but it's quite something to have your story walk around in front of you.

To quote the very first finding of the final report of the NSW parliament's rural health inquiry, released last week:

"Rural, regional and remote patients have significantly poorer health outcomes, greater incidents of chronic disease and greater premature deaths when compared to their counterparts in metropolitan areas."

Translation: people have died because the system failed.

That's the most severe failure a government can be responsible for - responsibility for a preventable death. It's an utterly damning finding, but nobody can deny that it's just true.

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It's worth noting that the National Party exists to prevent finding one from happening.

But we didn't even get an apology for this from the responsible minister after the release of this crushing, devastating judgement last week. She needs to take this seriously.

This is not something that can politicked away. In my view, the government is on the clock. At election time in March next year, those words will be echoing through my brain.

"There's a health crisis going on at the moment, it might be a bit of a wait."

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We gave the Liberals and the Nationals a decade in office. If that problem isn't fixed, the state won't give them another.

The warning wasn't really true by the way. It took about half an hour for me to be seen for my category four (semi-urgent) complaint - a pub-related broken arm. I was walking out again with a sling within three hours. Both were on time in terms of clinically-recommended KPIs. Staff nailed it.

Andrew Messenger is a Northern Daily Leader journalist.

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