The group has backed GPs Andrew Gibson and David Rivett, who are upset a new scanner was installed last year in Moruya Hospital – the second in the town – rather than in Batemans Bay.

Long-serving Country Women’s Association (CWA) member, and former nurse, Maureen Kinross, said the women planned to make noise.

“The CWA voted to support the doctors in getting a better deal for the Batemans Bay Hospital,” Mrs Kinross said.

“Somebody from the CWA will be at every (NSW Health) meeting.

“We’ve seen enough of everything being taken away – like the maternity unit – and now it looks like they’re trying to take the hospital.”

Mrs Kinross said the CWA wanted Batemans Bay Hospital to keep pace with the town’s growing population, and having a CAT scanner was a fundamental part of that.

“If someone has a stroke, the time in getting help is the biggest thing,” she said. 

“We have excellent doctors and nurses, and we want to see facilities change and grow.

“I worked there in the 70s and 80s, and we had excellent facilities. We used to have one of the best orthopaedic surgeons in NSW.

“The government is supposed to be modernising things, but it’s not modernising when they’re just being taken away.”

Eurobodalla Shire paramedic union official Mick Grayson said not having a scanner at Batemans Bay Hospital had broader implications, particularly for stroke patients.

“Neither Batemans Bay or Moruya Hospital is accredited as a stroke center, so patients are transported to the closest hospital,” he said. 

“We work under a protocol, and currently there’s no difference between the two hospitals as far as health policy is concerned.”

Mr Grayson said paramedics were behind the push for a CAT scanner at Batemans Bay Hospital.

“We would certainly support calls for a scanner in Batemans Bay, just because of the time it takes to transport patients between the hospitals (for scans),” he said. 

“An ambulance is taken out of the system for one-and-a-half hours every time a patient needs to be transported from Batemans Bay to Moruya. The community has less resources available for that time.”