News from Helen Dalton

This month in parliament I called for the splitting up of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District in order to provide proper local health care across the electorate.

I informed Parliament via a Notice of Motion that I intended to amend the legislation that binds us here in the seat of Murray to the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

The proposed amendment will split the MHLD into two separate districts, creating a new district called the Western Riverina Health district for all of us West of Wagga.

The new Western Riverina Health District will cover Leeton to Balranald including Deniliquin, Jerilderie, Berrigan, Finley, Leeton, Griffith, Hay, Hillston, Lake Cargelligo, Balranald, Barham, Moulamein and Tocumwal.

It will have it’s own board, budget and recruitment process.

We all know that for too long, all of us in the Western Riverina region have been treated as second class citizens by the bosses at the MHLD.

The MHLD has consistently downgraded the status of our hospitals through poor recruitment practices and a lack of services, and this deliberate decline in services must stop right now.

I believe we need a closer focus on the health needs of the people of the Western Riverina, and by splitting up the MHLD we can achieve this.

Planning practices in the MLHD are way too centralised and ignore local knowledge and expertise.

Local health focus will save local lives. It’s that simple. I will be speaking with the NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park, urgently about the matter over the coming months. Stay tuned.