However supporters for a similar machine for Dubbo will have to bide their time before one will be installed in the short or medium term.

Professor Joe Canalese, a board member of Western NSW Local Health District told a forum of about 200 people that, because a second bunker was already in place at Orange, it would end up with the machine.

Dr Canalese was chairing the Western NSW community health forum which was held in the auditorium of the Dubbo RSL on Thursday evening.

The NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner, NSW Health Parliamentary secretary Melinda Pavey, the director general of the NSW Ministry of Health Dr Mary Foley, and Western Health’s director of operations and Western NSW Local Health District board chairman Dr Robin Williams were on a panel receiving questions and submissions ranging from the lack of doctors trained in sexual assault examinations, chronic pain suffering, severe diabetes issues and the shortage and difficulty in sourcing doctors and medical practitioners in small rural and regional communities.

The Member for Dubbo, Troy Grant said at the completition of the forum the challenges of health and how to fix it was like eating an elephant: a job best done one mouthful at a time.

He said having the Minister, her Parliamentary Secretary and their director general in a forum panel was a bonus for rural and regional communities and the opportunity should be repeated in the near future.

“It’s an enormous challenge, but we’re not going to sit there and let nothing happen,” he said.