A Parliamentary Inquiry into rural and regional health in New South Wales is on its way – and it’s long overdue, according to Lismore MP Janelle Saffin.

“Avoidable deaths can be twice as likely to occur in rural and regional communities, compared to cities,” Ms Saffin said. 

“And the median age of death for those in Sydney (79) is more than a decade higher than residents in our most remote communities (66).

The NSW Upper House inquiry will highlight issues of concern to country communities and make recommendations for change. 

Ms Saffin said managing the public health system was complex and challenging, and patients and their families rightly had high expectations of standards of medical care.

“Our doctors, specialists, nurses and midwives, and administrative staff do their very best to provide that care, but funding for clinical resources always seems to be tight,” Ms Saffin said.

“We scrambled well here in preparing for the Covid-19 pandemic, and have been relatively fortunate so far this year.

“However, the Covid-triggered Queensland-NSW border closure has shown up the interdependency between Northern NSW and South East Queensland for specialist care.

“Our reliance on the Queensland hospital system, public and private, or Queensland specialists who treat us here, is very apparent.

“This inquiry may provide an opportunity to take a closer look at these kind of issues. How we could perhaps be less reliant and invest in building up our system where we can?”

Ms Saffin said an inquiry was timely because the wide disparity in health outcomes between city and country areas was laid bare in data from the Public Health Information Development Unit which showed that the highest rates of preventable hospitalisation and preventable chronic diseases are in regional and rural areas.

It will look at health outcomes for people living in rural, regional and remote areas; access and availability of health services; planning systems; capital and recurrent health expenditure; and staffing challenges and allocations.