The Minister met a deputation from Bellingen Council and the Hospital Action Group in her office for 35 minutes last Wednesday (January 27).

While Ms Tebbutt gave no assurances, a spokesman said: “It was a fruitful and positive meeting. A range of matters relating to the hospital were discussed and community members had the opportunity to express their views to the Minister”.

“Discussions with community members are important and the Minister supports ongoing dialogue in the future.”

Mayor Mark Troy said the primary objective of the Council delegation was to convey to Ms Tebbutt the widespread community concern about service reductions at the Bellingen Hospital.

He said that while the Minister was receptive and gave the delegation a good hearing, it was obvious that she was well briefed on issues relating to Bellingen Hospital. “The Minister said she would follow up on the promised maternity model, she was told that the reactivation of maternity services is seen as being crucial to the hospitals future. The Minister acknowledged the need to revisit and review some of the data provided by the Clinical Taskforce,” Cr Troy said. “The need for meaningful community consultation to identify and plan the future long term role of the Bellingen Hospital was recognised, there needs to be clarity about where the Bellingen Hospital fits within the regional health system. Under utilisation in some areas could be turned around by networking with other hospitals. “The ongoing budget shortfall for the North Coast Area was again raised. There is evidence that the area is under funded by around $80 million (proportionally) annually. Mayor Troy said the Minister was advised that Council was keen to work with Area Health to plan for the hospital’s future role in identifying and meeting the communities current and future health care needs, recognising the region’s growth projections and changing demographics and the fortuitous location of the Bellingen Hospital in relation to the region. Bellingen Hospital Action Group delegate, Jaki Lockyer, who joined Mayor, deputy Mayor and General Manager on the deputation to Ms Tebbutt, was cautiously hopeful of the success of the mission: "The Minister expressed concern over the lack of community consultation in the process of planning the future of Bellinger River District Hospital. We will just have to wait to see how her commitment to address this issue translates into action to be taken by the North Coast Area Health Alliance,” she said. Meanwhile, rural communities from across New South Wales concerned about health services are gathering under the banner of the NSW Health Alliance. Mayor John Bowell of Kempsey Shire Council will host a meeting to be chaired by Frankie J Holden at the Kempsey RSL on Sunday, March 7 at 2pm. Residents living within the North Coast Area Health Service region are especially invited to share their concerns and to call on State and Federal levels of government to provide safe health and hospital care. Frankie J Holden said: “While my interest in this issue has begun where I live, but as I got more involved, I realised the extent of the problem. Rural communities across the State are being decimated through the callous, calculated and thoughtless actions of politicians and bureaucrats”. “It's time we stood up for ourselves. It's time our voices were heard. It's time we drew a line in the sand. I urge every voter to come to this rally and let your voice be heard," said Mr Holden. “People are invited to come along and voice their concerns about the situation with NSW health services and facilities, which is becoming more critical every day. We hope to have a broad cross section of people from lots of different communities of the north coast in attendance at the meeting as this will give weight to our concerns about the security of and access to local health and hospital services in our region,” concluded Mayor Bowell. State and Federal MP’s have been invited to attend. Bellingen Health Action Group has organised a small bus for travel to Kempsey. Please book your seat on the bus by Thursday, March 4 by phoning 66559199. The bus will leave from Bellingen Council Park at 12 noon on Sunday, 7th March. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald stated: “Bellingen hospital does not do after-hours operations, offers no antenatal care, has no sterilisation equipment and, most recently, no after-hours radiology service. Now locals are concerned they are about to lose overnight emergency care. Doctors and residents have dubbed a string of administrative decisions over the past few years ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and are fearful the North Coast Area Heath Service has gradually run down services at the 34-bed Bellingen River District Hospital with a view to closing it. Dr Deidre Little of the Medical Staff Council said Coffs Harbour hospital, which is about 40 minutes away, was already struggling to see emergency patients on time, had long waiting lists for elective surgery and could not cope with the excess patient load. Since maternity services were cut at Bellingen - there was just one birth there last year and no antenatal care despite 125 pregnancies in the area - women had to travel long distances in labour. A week ago Rosemary Mackney drove herself 40 minutes to Coffs Harbour hospital for an antenatal check-up, where she was told she was in labour. ''It was a real stress … I was really freaking out that I'd be stuck in a vehicle on my way to give birth,'' Ms Mackney said. Dr Little said the area health service did a patient activity audit for 2007-2008 which had several errors but it had not released a corrected version. Doctors were concerned the data might be used to justify a further erosion of services. A spokesman for the area health service said it had ''no plans to close the Bellingen River District Hospital'', and it had ''made no decision to partly close'' the emergency department. A copy of the correct patient profile had been sent to Dr Little last Friday (Jan 22).”