{"id":537528,"date":"2026-03-13T09:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537528\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T09:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:58:12","slug":"southern-riverina-left-behind-and-forgotten-inquiry-into-murrumbidgee-health-district-split-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537528\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Riverina ‘left behind and forgotten’, inquiry into Murrumbidgee health district split hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

An inquiry into the potential split of a southern New South Wales health district has heard that hospitals have been unable to hire staff to fill critical gaps.<\/p>\n

Bed blocking, lack of services and staff shortages are some of the reasons behind a push to divide the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).<\/p>\n

On Friday surgeons told the parliamentary inquiry that Griffith Base Hospital was experiencing staff shortages in key areas, but the health district was refusing to make new hires.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Narayanan Jayachandran (left) and Warren Hargreaves spoke at the MLHD split inquiry hearing. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“There have been other cases where specialists have contacted us seeking to work in the hospital and have been told that no position exists,” surgical oncology specialist Warren Hargreaves said.<\/p>\n

“In particular, a gastroenterologist and a geriatrician, who would both be very valuable members of the staff \u2026 they were both told no position exists for them so they can’t be hired.”<\/p>\n

Dr Hargreaves said that had left the short stay and rehabilitation wards unopened.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Julia Cornwell McKean spoke at the hearing and said there was “no health equity” in her shire. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Berrigan Shire Council Mayor Julia Cornwell McKean told the inquiry the local health district’s inability to provide critical diagnosis services was failing constituents.<\/p>\n

“We need to see investment in CT scanners for Tocumwal and Finley. We’d like to see dialysis chairs and to be part of the NSW telestroke service,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Murrumbidgee Local Health District is not doing enough for us.<\/p>\n

“We have been left behind, forgotten and, quite frankly, left for dead.”\"A<\/p>\n

The Griffith community rallied outside the Griffith Regional Theatre, where the Inquiry was held on Thursday. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Those in favour of the split say the LHD is too big for a population of more than 240,000.<\/p>\n

If the division is implemented it could see the formation of a new Western Riverina Health District.<\/p>\n

The Inquiry was held in Griffith on Thursday and Friday, with doctors, patients, politicians and representatives from the health district speaking about the pros and cons of a split.<\/p>\n

MLHD has previously argued a split would be detrimental to healthcare.<\/p>\n

The district 125,243 square kilometres of southern NSW, from as far north as Lake Cargelligo down to the Victorian border near Tocumwal and Corowa.<\/p>\n

The proposed split would cover communities including Griffith, Deniliquin and Lake Cargelligo.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Some community members are advocating for a new health district to cover the western Riverina. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Specialist shortages<\/p>\n

Doctors also shared their frustrations over the lack of an emergency orthopaedic surgeon, which meant patients had to be sent to Wagga Wagga for simple orthopaedic procedures.<\/p>\n

The doctors said those procedures could be performed at Griffith before the MLHD was formed.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Dodds says there needs to be change within the Murrumbidgee Local Health District. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Retired Griffith doctor Elizabeth Dodds said MLHD need to take on more rural generalists who were trained to provide primary and advanced care, as well as specialised skills like orthopaedics.<\/p>\n

“During COVID I was doing in the nursing home exactly what people had to go to Wagga for \u2014 to get a plaster put on an arm,” she said.<\/p>\n

Griffith hospital is the second largest in the MLHD and Waggga Wagga Base Hospital, the district’s only rural referral-level facility, is the largest.<\/p>\n

Major traumas, neurosurgery and cardiothoracic cases are referred to Sydney.<\/p>\n

Communication needed<\/p>\n

A constant concern brought up by many individuals during the hearings was the need for better communication.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yvonne Turnell has been a health advocate for more than 20 years.\u00a0 (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Health advocate Yvonne Turnell, a former member of the Griffith Local Health Advisory Committee, said the advisory group was not operating in accordance with its original purpose.<\/p>\n

“Over time MLHD executives have interfered with the community’s functions by restricting what is permitted to be asked or to do rather than serving as a meaningful channel of communication between the community and the hospital,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dolf Murwood says MLHD needs to improve its communication with the community. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Griffith Local Health Advisory Group chair Dolf Murwood said there would often be a lack of discussion with MLHD on recommendations from the public.<\/p>\n

“There is a huge communication issue and I think that’s something that needs to be fixed up. And if that can’t be fixed up, then we need to split,” he said.<\/p>\n

Concern over fragmentation and budget\"A<\/p>\n

Narelle Mills says the Murrumbidgee Public Health Network is not in favour of the split. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Murrumbidgee Public Health Network chief executive Narelle Mills said she was concerned about the fragmentation of several allied health models that collaborate with the MLHD if a split was to happen.<\/p>\n

“Deeper collaboration between primary acute and community care is an important part of the solution, rather than a potential structural change that could introduce additional complexity pressure across the system,” she said.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Stephen Young said his organisation did not support the split due to concerns spending would be diverted for administrative costs.<\/p>\n

“Higher skilled surgeries \u2014 even Wagga may not be able to deal with this. They may have to fly people out to Sydney or Canberra,” he said.<\/p>\n

“To break into a different LHD you have to have a budget.<\/p>\n

“You might then have all the budget spent on these fly-ins, and those people left to do the day-to-day stuff will be working and less resourced.”<\/p>\n

More inquiry hearings are set to take place in two weeks’ time, when MLHD and NSW Health will speak.<\/p>\n

The committee will then put together its findings to present to the NSW government later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An inquiry into the potential split of a southern New South Wales health district has heard that hospitals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,99996,137,500,99994,266587,47944,150569],"class_list":["post-537528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-griffith-base-hospital","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-mlhd","tag-murrumbidgee-health-district-inquiry","tag-murrumbidgee-local-health-district","tag-wagga-wagga-base-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}