4th August, 2026.
I congratulate the member for Camden. She and I share Wire Lane in the Camden area. To get the money for the lights there is so important. My electoral officer was hit there and we know we have lost lives there, so well done.
Wollondilly faces a distinct shortage of local and State medical infrastructure including diagnostic testing, specialists, cancer treatment and emergency departments. I represent both Wollondilly and Wingecarribee, but Wollondilly shire could literally be the only local government area in the Sydney metropolitan area that does not have a public or private hospital. What is little appreciated by the Government is that the lack of hospitals and lack of after hours medical services in Wollondilly result in travelling roughly 30 to 80 kilometres on rural roads and major highways to major regional hubs like Campbelltown, Nepean and Bowral hospitals for emergency, specialist and acute hospital care. Access to health care is fraught with traffic congestion in peak commuter times where patients share the roads with freight movements and commuters travelling through the electorate to Canberra, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Liverpool, Penrith and Parramatta.
The Wollondilly electorate is known to have fewer GPs, long wait times, and a noticeable lack of female practitioners or after-hours medical options and unreliable public transport. All of these factors cause symptoms in the health system such as long waiting lists, waiting times in emergency departments, high chronic disease rates compared to greater Sydney averages and road travel takes a toll on sick patients. In addition to the limited and unreliable public bus and rail transport, Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands have a drought of taxi and shared car transport options. We can order a taxi but nobody comes. Public transport options are limited at the best of times—we have the slowest and most unreliable train service—let alone when it is needed most when residents are ill or need urgent care.
Furthermore, the Wollondilly shire and Southern Highlands are home to beautiful national parks and nature reserves, which we love. A new national park is situated at the northern part of the Wollondilly electorate. Visitors come to our scenic, natural environment and open space and, each year, particularly in the hot summer season, emergency services and paramedics are called to the popular swimming spots such as Mermaid Pools in Tahmoor to rescue injured locals and visitors from the natural area by helicopter. They have to travel a long way to access hospital services.
There is clearly an "us and them" contrast between Wollondilly and the rest of the Sydney metropolitan area. After more than 15 years of State Government infrastructure neglect, Wollondilly needs its own urgent care, integrated primary health care and hospital infrastructure. Health services are needed to support the existing residents of all ages as well as the planned growth of the region which will mean an increase in homes and jobs in the area. In the past three years, the Government has started to listen to the needs of the Wollondilly community. I support new housing in well-located areas. The Government must support and complement, rather than prioritise housing development over social and health infrastructure. Across the electorate, residents are physically isolated, burdened by the length of time to travel to and from hospitals and, due to the lack of other options, face barriers including finding parking and securing a bed.
Whilst I support the Government's rollout of urgent care services to help reduce pressure on emergency departments, I am disappointed that NSW Health and the local health district have not prioritised any urgent care clinics in Wollondilly or the Southern Highlands. The pressure on Wollondilly households to transport sick family members, and the lack of GPs and medical centres open late or on weekends puts avoidance pressure on the New South Wales ambulance system. It is diabolical to have to call paramedics to Wollondilly and then travel to the nearest hospital that is 30 to 80 kilometres away. In the past week, there has been times when 28 of the 50 beds in Bowral hospital were filled by people waiting to transition, so there is no space even when people get there.
I ask the Government to commence business cases to deliver multiple urgent care services in Wollondilly and Southern Highlands similar to those that have been introduced in the Sydney metropolitan area and the Illawarra to reduce transport costs and time pressures on patients based in Wollondilly, and to help them access diagnostic equipment including X-ray and pathology, as well as alleviate the dire conditions in emergency departments exacerbated by the geographical inequity of living in a peri-urban area.