As Leeton Hospital continues to haemorrhage over a staffing crisis, Member for Murray Helen Dalton is planning a community meeting to demand action. 

Mrs Dalton said the public meeting would aim to gather as many stories as possible and “put our demands to Government”. 

With a population of over 11,000 people, Leeton’s Hospital has no radiology or ultrasound department, a huge staff turnover and, for hours in a day, no nurse on roster in the Emergency Department. 

Union representatives and former nurses visited Ms Dalton last year to discuss the issues and observed despite not having a full-time doctor, the hospital also lost its Aged Care and Facility managers, has no social worker in mental health and no 24-hour security. 

Some have pointed to a culture of bullying being the alleged reason for such high turnover of staff. 

“Leeton hospital is in crisis. It’s ridiculous that a town of 11,000 does not have a full- time doctor at the hospital,” Ms Dalton said. “We have people who are being turned away from the Emergency Department there because a doctor isn’t available on-call.” 

Health professionals and infrastructure in Leeton is at mission critical. 

NSW hospitals do not offer a nurse-to-patient ratio guarantee which can make working in a regional NSW hospital less attractive. 

While Ms Dalton has the MLHD in her crosshairs, Matt Doherty, Regional Organiser for the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association believes this crisis has the State Government’s hands all over it. 

“My genuine feeling is the crisis in rural health has been a growing issue over 11 years,” Mr Doherty said. 

“Nurses main concern is the MLHD can’t fix these issues, this is actually a state wide policy which makes it harder to attract and keep rural 

nurses in hospitals. “Nurses in Leeton are telling me, why am I working in Leeton when I can go to Queensland and have mandated nurse/patient ratios? The government can fix a lot of this immediately, admitting the staffing system doesn’t work and implementing ratios would mean all this goes away. 

“It would make it easier to advertise for nurses if you say “this is how many patients you will need to take care of”. 

“Everybody pays the same tax so they should have the same access to proper health care and service.” 

Matt revealed to the Argus the NSWNMA and the NSW Government were involved in negotiations to bring in ratios across NSW hospitals but are unlikely to reach an agreement before the end of May. 

Murrumbidgee Local Health District chief executive Jill Ludford responded to Doherty’s comments urging Leeton residents to continue to present to their Hospital Emergency Departments. 

“Leeton is fortunate to have four private medical practices employing General Practitioners,” Ms Ludford said. 

“Leeton Hospital employs seven GP VMOs and aims to have a VMO rostered on call at all times. 

“No patients are turned away from Emergency Departments, which are staffed 24 hours a day by highly trained registered nurses with qualifications in emergency care who can triage and assess patients. 

Ms Ludford said MLHD has been actively recruiting for a Career Medical Officer and Nurse Practitioners for the Leeton Hospital Emergency Department since 2019. 

“Attracting medical professionals to work in rural and regional areas continues to be a challenge nationwide,” she said. 

Ms Ludford also addressed allegations of a bullying and unsafe workplace practices at Leeton Hospital. 

“Murrumbidgee Local Health District is aware of allegations of bullying at Leeton Hospital,” she said. 

“MLHD does not tolerate bullying behaviour in the workplace. 

“Any allegations are taken very seriously and investigated fully, and support provided to affected staff. 

“MLHD is now developing different options to attract Medical Officers for Emergency Departments, whilst supporting the local doctors to admit patients for local care.” 

Options to address those issues were discussed with senior staff from MLHD met with Leeton Shire Council Mayor Paul Maytom and General Manager Jackie Kruger earlier this week. 

The Mayor urged the MLHD to provide more clarity to the local community about what they can expect and what is being delivered locally. 

The Murrumbidgee Local Health District confirmed they were meeting with local general practitioners to discuss urgent roster issues.