Independent MPs to lobby health minister on paediatric clinics

Murray MP Helen Dalton confirmed on Friday she has locked in a meeting with minister Ryan Park, independents Dr McGirr, Roy Butler and Phil Donato next week to lobby for funding before the June budget and to endorse a campaign by Royal Far West to establish two clinics in western NSW.

RFW has called for funds to set up a three-year pilot program to expand its developmental assessment and treatment service with new services in Wagga and Dubbo.

The Manly clinic has been co-funded by NSW Health for more two decades and the charity said the extension of this service would require an uplift from the government of up to $6 million per year by the 2027 financial year.

The proposed Wagga service would have on-the-ground staff and visiting clinicians, supported by telehealth to ensure efficient and regular services for children with developmental challenges.

Dr McGirr argued that while Wagga is not as bad as some regional communities, it still takes up to 12 months for children to get assessed by paediatricians.

He said it is also difficult and expensive to see a paediatrician and believes bringing more services to the region would help troubled youth.

"We've had a lot of focus on youth crime in recent years," Dr McGirr said.

"We've had an inquiry into that and the government has promised a whole of government approach [to tackling that].

"One key component of that is ensuring children have health assessments, because often kids that get into trouble will have issues around learning difficulties and neurodiversity.

"And that could be fixed with appropriate assessment or treatment, or linked to NDIS."

Dr McGirr said this could make the difference between a young person entering the criminal justice system or getting their life back on track.

"It's almost a sliding door moment.. if we capture young people when they first get into trouble and get them the support services [they need], we can change their lives," he said.

Dr McGirr said he visited the Royal Far West service in Manly with the health minister and independents Ms Dalton, Mr Donato and Mr Butler in February where the issue around the need for more paediatric services in Wagga was raised.

He said the four independents are "very concerned" about seeing action taken on the issue and have "been working together with Royal Far West ... [and also] the minister" to secure a positive ahead of the state budget.

"We want to continue to push this issue...and see funding for improved services for paediatric assessments," Dr McGirr said.

While supporting the RFW proposal, he said the "underlying issue is that we get better services for kids."

"The minister and the department might have a different view of how that is achieved. [if so] I'm happy to listen to it, but at the moment, that's where we're at," Dr McGirr said.

Murray MP Ms Dalton also wants to see improved services in the region, but is hoping for a slightly different outcome.

She said the Royal Far West proposal is "not a done deal" and while agreeing there needs to be two new facilities operating in NSW, with one in the north and one in the south, Ms Dalton believes the latter should be located in Griffith, not Wagga.

Ms Dalton said services in the Murray electorate, which includes the towns of Griffith, Leeton, Deniliquin and Moama, have been "hollowed out over the last 30 to 40 years" due to the worsening doctor shortage.

With a background in teaching, she said it is important to ensure children across the region are "on the right track before they get to school", but there's a problem.

"A lot of them are slipping through the net ... [so it's] critical to get them back on track," she said.

Ms Dalton believes RFW has "identified a real [health] gap" that needs addressing.

She hopes after meeting with Mr Park next week, the independents can come out with a positive result.

"I certainly want commitments from Ryan Park," Ms Dalton said.

"But I don't want it in 10 years' time, I want it as soon as possible."