Mr Humphries has been speaking with CEO of the Greater Western Area Health Service, Danny O’Connor, who categorically denied a downgrade in service at the Coonabarabran Hospital.

“I believe GWAHS is wanting to move Community Health into the local Hospital, however the fear is that the service would be moved into what is the current four bed unit, leaving the Hospital four beds short,” Mr Humphries said.

“I have had assurances from Mr O’Connor that this is not the case, and that there is unused space at the hospital that could house Community Health.

“The four bed ward has not been disbanded, merely reconfigured, and the Community Health move has not been finalised.”

But Mr Humphries said herein was where the real problem lay with the Coonabarabran Hospital, a lack of communication.

“It is unacceptable that these proposed moves are made without any advice from, or too, the community.”

“Doctors, nurses, allied and community health staff all need to be consulted in any service restructure. Community members also need to be engaged.”

He said GWAHS needed to start taking advice from the locals, and that its environment of ‘closed door’ decision-making and secrecy was jeopardising what potentially could be good ideas.

“Country communities work in a different way to in the city, we like a high degree of ownership and people want to be consulted – and so they should.

“The community is automatically sceptical of any new ideas from GWAHS at the moment due to its track record of downgrading services in the region.”

Mr Humphries will be meeting with Mayor Peter Shinton and hospital management at the Coonabarabran Hospital on Thursday, and said one outcome that he would push for would be the introduction of a Coonabarabran Hospital Advisory Council.

He said the Council would be a mix of community members and health workers.

“We currently have these Councils working well in towns like Coolah, Tottenham and Moree and there tends to be fewer problems with issues identified faster in these towns, where the lines of communication are open between community, clinicians, hospital staff and the Health Service.”