Some things are very good, others not so, to be overly polite about it. Ambulance officers and response times were brilliant. The compassion, care and diligence of Batemans Bay Hospital doctors and nursing staff was heartwarming, and of course it was a great relief to find the symptoms were due to a pericardial infection, rather than a myocardial infarction. I was also told I did the right thing by calling 000; if you have these symptoms and think it might be an infection, don’t let it stop you ringing 000.

On the down side, once discharged with a CT scan request in hand, I duly called the radiography people and was asked if the signing doctor was a specialist cardiologist or a GP.

Why? If signed by a GP I’d pay $400, and if signed by a cardiologist I’d pay nothing. A quick trip to the hospital revealed neither the Bay or Moruya hospitals have a cardiologist. My friendly GP told me the Eurobodalla, with more than 25,000 people, depends on one visiting cardiologist and the wait to see him is three months.

This is hardly fair to those in regional areas. According to my GP, in an emergency, the paramedics will treat you very effectively and fly you to Canberra, but anything less gets a less-than optimal standard of servicing. “Woeful” was his word.

I called Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis’s office on Monday and her gracious and helpful secretary took the details, but by Thursday, nothing. I know she’s under a lot of pressure, but for someone allegedly passionate about regional health to have allowed the situation to come to what it is, is odd to say the least.

The real purpose of HuntFest, under the sponsorship of the SSAA, is to increase the number of guns and shooters in the community by presenting animal killing as a sport.  

Many residents believe killing feral animals should only be done by qualified, professional hunters such as park rangers, who understand when, how and why to kill animals in a humane, supervised manner, and not by amateur shooters doing it disguised as a healthy outdoor activity of benefit to the community.

It is an even more dangerous event when it gives free admission and shooting encouragement to children at a time when they should be learning empathy for living creatures and not how to kill them with bullets or arrows.

Great emphasis is given to its photography competition, with examples of animals  “tastefully” displayed after or just before they have been killed. Far better photos of living animals in their natural environments will be displayed at the “Animals in the Wild” exhibition to be enjoyed  the Gallery Bodalla this weekend.       

The NSW/ACT Regional Achievement & Community Awards have been launched for 2018 and the state-wide search has begun.

Every town has

• That inspiring individual, who we all wonder where they always find the time

• The local business forever supporting its community whilst running the best business in town

• The community group that is helping ... well everyone and everything

We need to give thanks and you can by nominating them in categories ranging from agriculture to leadership.

Great prizes are up for grabs. Visit www.awardsaustralia.com/nswactraca by August 16.