Yesterday the Daily Telegraph published a list of smaller hospitals it claimed were at risk under the pay-per-service model.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refuted the claims, but Mr Coulton said if the report was true, it “may not actually be a bad thing for Dubbo Base Hospital”.

“Dubbo could do okay at the expense of the smaller ones - but no one wants that,” he said.

“I’ve been to Bourke this week and no one wants to travel to Dubbo base to have a broken arm fixed.

“We need clarification on this.

Dubbo MP Dawn Fardell has slammed the list of hospitals as an exercise in scaremongering.

“Anyone can pull together a list of country hospitals,” she said.

“I’m not sure what that proves, except to build anxiety levels within rural and regional areas.

“Keep in mind that this is not happening tomorrow. The Rudd Government would need to be elected twice more before this occurs.

And she said while she supported a “bigger role for the Federal Government” in health delivery, she warned against a “one-system-fits-all” approach to hospital funding.

“We certainly can’t accept any model which suggests that the approach applied to a major Sydney hospital is suitable for Parkes, Forbes or Dubbo,” Ms Fardell said.