When I started writing this newsletter I was planning to write about how our hospital almost had no doctor on duty for 12 hours.
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Fortunately that didn't happen, I was going to write. But sadly it did.
The story started on Friday morning when state MP Adam Marshall sent out a media release when it appeared there would be no doctor on duty for the night shift, from 8pm Friday until 8am on Saturday morning.
He took the opportunity to savage the Newcastle based management of the health district.
At that stage I contacted Hunter New England Health for their response and we were about to publish warning of the situation, when some good news came through.
In the words of Hunter New England Health on Friday, they had secured medical coverage for the night shift so there would be a doctor on duty. Good news!
Mr Marshall updated a social media post to thank the health minister Ryan Park when the doctor was secured.
There was only one problem.
The doctor they had found to fill the shift had to cancel. So in the end there was no doctor on duty at Armidale Hospital during the early hours of Saturday morning.
A spokesman for Hunter New England Health said attracting and retaining doctors in rural areas like Armidale is a nationwide challenge and is a common issue faced by many rural and regional areas across NSW.
But here's another problem. Even when we have a doctor on duty, we have a system that is constantly under pressure.
I saw this firsthand recently when I found myself sitting in the emergency department of Armidale hospital twice in less than a week.
It's a place you know you will have to wait a while, sometimes a long while, as our system tries to cope with the demands placed on it.
It has been this way for years so it is not a shock to have to wait a long time when seeking medical attention. And that's when there is a doctor in the house.
Unfortunately, there are significant challenges securing doctors to cover parts of the on-call rosters. This is a crisis facing the health system throughout the country.
Locum coverage is also increasingly difficult to secure due to the competitive market for their services across the country.
So if you end up needing a doctor, please be prepared to wait.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week.
Laurie Bullock
Group Editor
