Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) says it is continuing its search for a locum doctor to provide medical cover in the Cootamundra Hospital Emergency Department on weekdays.
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In a statement sent to the Cootamundra Herald MLHD said the service is also recruting a specialist nurse practioner (NP) to provide additional support for emergency patient presentations.
"The locum doctor will provide medical support in the ED while we recruit to a NP who is additionally qualified to commence medications and other higher level emergency treatments," a spokesperson for MLHD said.
"The new locum GP at the Cootamundra Medical Centre will not be a VMO for the hospital."
Cootamundra Hospital currently has six General Practitioner (GP)/Visiting Medical Officers (VMOs) on call to provide medical cover at the Emergency Department (ED) after-hours and weekends.
"The local doctors at Cootamundra remain committed to their local hospital and will continue to care for urgent emergency department patients," the spokesperson said.
MLHD is urging local residents to continue to present to the Cootamundra Hospital ED for urgent assessment and treatment.
"The ED is staffed with highly trained Registered Nurses who assess and triage patients," MLHD said.
"The ED has 24-hour access to remote medical consult services if a doctor is not present at the hospital.
"A senior ED medical consultant provides all medical advice and support from presentation to discharge or retrieval to specialist care.
"MLHD has partnered with the Murrumbidgee Medical Training Hub (MMTH) University of NSW to develop the Murrumbidgee Integrated Rural Training Pathway, based on a single employer model.
"Under the proposed pathway, MLHD would employee GP trainees as NSW Health employees for four years while working in both rural hospitals and local general practices.
"GPs would be trained to work in rural areas - providing benefits to trainees, MLHD and the community.
"This would build the local GP workforce capacity and provide a streamlined pathway for rural medical students and junior doctors into rural GP training.
"Under this program the trainees will remain employees of NSW Health to ensure continuity of employment and ease movement between hospital and general practice training," MLHD added.
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