In Short

• Four-day tour underway: Roy Butler is hosting Dr Joe McGirr, Member for Wagga Wagga and Chair of the Legislative Assembly Select Committee on Remote, Rural and Regional Health, on a tour from the east of Barwon out to the Far West this week.
• Focus on rural health delivery: The tour will examine both the challenges facing medical staff and hospital administrators in Barwon and the things that are working well across the region.
• Committee context: Dr McGirr's committee is reviewing progress on the implementation of recommendations from the Rural Health Inquiry — one of the most significant examinations of healthcare in regional NSW in recent years.

The Member for Barwon Roy Butler is this week hosting a four-day health tour across the electorate alongside Dr Joe McGirr, the Member for Wagga Wagga, travelling from the east of Barwon all the way out to the Far West to meet with the people on the front line of healthcare delivery across the region.

Dr McGirr serves as Chair of the Legislative Assembly Select Committee on Remote, Rural and Regional Health, which has been reviewing progress on the implementation of recommendations from the Rural Health Inquiry, a wide-ranging examination of healthcare access and delivery in regional, rural and remote NSW. The tour will give Dr McGirr direct exposure to the specific pressures facing medical staff and hospital administrators in Barwon, as well as an opportunity to see what is working well and what lessons might be drawn from the electorate's experience.

Mr Butler said the tour should prove informative for both of them. Barwon is one of the most geographically vast electorates in Australia, covering 44 per cent of the state, which means the healthcare challenges it faces, from recruitment and retention of staff to the tyranny of distance for patients, are among the most complex in NSW. The tour represents a direct effort to make sure the voices of those working and living in the region are heard at a parliamentary level as the committee's review progresses.