Patients in the bush die from lack of services.    
Amy Corderoy, Saffron Howden
June 5, 2012

ROSY CRAIG has watched her patients die and delayed essential treatment since the century-old Coraki hospital was closed by a leaking roof in September last year.   

As a Senate inquiry investigates the reasons behind a dire shortfall in medical services in the bush, residents on the state's north coast live in fear of the day they will need emergency hospital care.

Coraki's Campbell Hospital was closed eight months ago after a hailstorm damaged the roof. Inpatient services were halted at Bonalbo hospital early this year after the long-standing local doctor retired.   


In nearby Mullumbimby, there are plans for overnight doctors to be replaced by video conferencing with Tweed Heads medical staff on a trial basis.

While the North Coast Area Health Advisory Council says cuts to the three services are coincidental and do not represent reduced access, doctors and residents alike have testified at the Senate inquiry about years of failed attempts to fix overall rural medical workforce shortages.

At present there are nearly 200 jobs advertised in country NSW and about 1660 GPs practising, according to the general manager of the NSW Rural Doctors Network, Mark Lynch. The age of many practising doctors means the problem will only get worse.   

Mr Lynch told the Herald about 40 per cent of rural doctors were older than 55.

"That's 650 doctors who are at or over the age of retirement," he said. "A lot of these doctors are cutting back the amount of time they spend working, or they are retiring, or in some cases they are dying.''

He said the northern NSW health district had less difficulty finding staff than areas west of the great dividing range.

There were now 16 job vacancies advertised for the district, the equivalent of 6.5 per cent of all doctors in the area, but in the west there were 31 vacancies at the end of 2011, about 14 per cent of all jobs. The figures hide the true scope of the problem because, in some cases, authorities had simply closed the hospitals or stopped advertising.   

Dr Craig, the resident GP at Coraki near Lismore, said elderly people experiencing severe chest pain were now waiting days before seeking medical help and there had been a spike in deaths at the local nursing home since the 14-bed local hospital was shut.   

''It takes an ambulance at least half an hour to get here,'' she said. ''It's nothing for them to fix the ceiling. They could have a bar around it. It's not in any clinical area.''

But Hazel Bridgett, the chairwoman of the local health advisory council, said it would cost at least $250,000 to make the hospital safe to admit patients again. The increase in deaths - all of which were due to natural causes - at the nearby nursing home was coincidental, she said.

''It just happened that in that six-month period there were more deaths than usual,'' Ms Bridgett said.

The plan to replace onsite doctors with video conferencing would only go ahead with the consent of Mullumbimby nurses, she said, and some medical services at the more remote Bonalbo would likely be contracted out.

''It's just coincidental that the three things happened at the same time so that it looks bad.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/patients-in-the-bush-die-from-lack-of-services-20120604-1zs7v.html#ixzz1wrdGNyLu

goodness me wasnt gillard bragging about fixing all this????????????????????????

goin back to 2007... it was all promised it would be fixed..

are we not the most brilliant of countries outriding every economic woe the world has???


yes thats us..


this is all lies and nasty propaganda spread by the evil Libs.


and I dont believe it.