Chair of the Orange Medical Staff Council Dr Ruth Arnold said doctors are disappointed that despite a recent visit by a delegation of doctors from the area to Canberra, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has declined a visit to the area to see first-hand the difficulties associated with providing health care in regional areas.

Last month the delegation which included Dr Arnold, vice-chair of the MSC Dr John Lambert and other doctors from the area met with Ms Roxon’s senior advisors, handing over documentation which supports their case for more funding to be allocated to the Greater Western Area Health Service.

Under the current arrangements a frail or elderly person who is assessed by the Aged Care Assessment Team as being unable to return home and requiring nursing home accommodation is kept in a general hospital facility until a bed can be found in a nursing home.

Blayney, Grenfell and Tullamore already receive Federal Government funding as they are classified as a multipurpose service which automatically attracts federal funding.

Doctors say funding of the aged care beds by the Federal Government is just one of several anomolies that exist with the broad gap between metropolitan and rural patients because of a heavier injection of Medicare dollars into the health system in Sydney and other areas on the coast.