Country Womens Association gives statement to health inquiry

The comments were made to an inquiry into regional and rural health.

In a submission by the Country Women's Association of NSW, where they conducted a survey of more than 850 people, only 40 per cent said they were able to access oncology services within 100km of their homes, and less than half were able to access psychiatric services.

The CWA of NSW policy manager Adair Garemyn gave evidence on Wednesday at the inquiry into health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote NSW.

"To this day, addressing a lack of rural health services remains a priority issue for the members of the CWA," she said. "We are very welcoming of this inquiry, we think it is something that has been needed for a very long time."

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The CWA is calling for a raft of upgraded and additional health services, including more public cancer clinics in regional areas, more services for perinatal anxiety, depression and support, more nurses both registered and enrolled, more blood stored in rural hospitals and more mental health clinicians and psychologist services.

"We've also surveyed our members for the purposes of this inquiry," Ms Garemyn said. "We were flooded with examples and stories about people's experiences in regional health.

"We overwhelmingly heard about a lack of access, significant wait times for services and people faced with the impossible decision of staying on a waitlist, which they don't know how long it will be, or uprooting everything to go to the city for treatment.

"A lot of the time there is no choice."

Ms Garemyn also said that "members tell me all the time they feel like second-class citizens", and that it "wasn't uncommon" to hear stories of people travelling up to 400km to seek oncology services.

"What that means is...being away from family, being away from your business, a lot of people in rural areas run their own businesses and they don't necessarily have someone to replace them.

"Other members of the family aren't necessarily able to accompany them or be with them which, I think COVID has highlighted for a lot of people how hard that is."

She also said that "across the board our members tell us that there's often just not enough nurses to even provide a safe level of care".

"One of our biggest and strongest call is just for more nurses and registered nurses in regional areas."

The inquiry continues in November.

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