THE Wee Waa community packed the local public school hall on Monday night to hear details of the implementation plan to restore Wee Waa Hospital to full operations.
Presenters included NSW Health deputy secretary, Luke Sloane, Hunter New England Health CEO, Tracey McCosker, and Member for Barwon, Roy Butler.
An Independent Review into Wee Waa Health Service in July identified a series of operational failures and made 20 recommendations to fix them.
Following the release of the review, misinformation circulated that Wee Waa Health Service would be downgraded into an Urgent Care model with no doctors.
Mr Butler is pleased Hunter New England Health has committed to returning full services to Wee Waa Health Service.
“The goal of the Implementation Plan is to return a 24/7 Emergency Department with on-site doctors to Wee Waa Health Service,” Mr Butler said.
“Wee Waa Health Service has been slowly degraded over several decades, and I’m pleased we now have a plan to turn things around.”
Key to reaching these goals is recruitment and retention of nurses and doctors.
Management is being improved at Wee Waa Health Service and staff are being rotated between Wee Waa and Narrabri to keep skills up-to-date.
This helps with career progression and therefore recruitment.
Wee Waa Health Service is currently relying on a mix of local and temporary staff, but a recent recruitment drive has produced five candidates and there are hopes the new operating model will continue to build a pipeline of new staff.
“The state funding is in place and the leadership is determined to return 24-hour Emergency Care to Wee Waa Health Service – now we just need the staff to get there,” Mr Butler said.
