By Jem Anshaw
The Muswellbrook branch of the Nurses and Midwives Association is calling for the community to stand with them as they host a Regional Health Forum next week.
“I think our regional healthcare is worth fighting for, and as we’ve said a million times before, your post code shouldn’t define your level of health care,” union member Peggy Smith shared.
“We want to hear the community stories, we want to hear issues that they’ve had in terms of accessing health in regional areas such as Muswellbrook, Scone, and Singleton.
“We want to hear stories about women who haven’t been able to birth here, particularly we know First Nations women haven’t been able to birth on country which is really upsetting.”
They want to hear stories from people who must travel for specialist appointments, elderly people or people with limited access to transport, people struggling with accessing mental health support, it will all help paint the big picture of what it is like accessing regional health care services.
The forum will provide a platform for discussion around key issues like understaffing, underfunding, closure of units like Muswellbrook Maternity, transport, creating backlogs at larger hospitals, staff recruitment and retention, as well as hearing stories from the community about the impact these issues have had.
While nothing will be solved overnight, Peggy shared it is important that the community shows the state and federal politicians and other dignitaries in attendance how important it is to have access to health services in regional areas.
Paige Sawkins has been flying for change for some time, and she is looking forward to seeing the community support this opportunity to stand up and be heard.
“It is action that is going to make people feel heard, we need the politicians coming along to do more than just come and listen, we need change,” she said.
The Regional Health Forum will be on Friday, May 9 at the Muswellbrook Workers Club from 6pm, anyone with an interest in helping improve local health services is encouraged to attend.
