Ms McCosker had told The Area News she had “discussed” moving the histopathology services to Wagga with clinicians and staff, and the change would “improve” services. 

Hospital doctors, however, say they were simply told this was happening last week, and there was no prior discussion.

“The suggestion that we have not been honest is outrageous and strongly denied”, Ms McCosker said. Her full response to The Area News questions can be found here. 

“Our local Operations Director had initial discussions with pathology staff on Thursday 20 July to discuss the proposed change to our histopathology service”.

“We were also invited by Griffith Hospital’s management to present the recommendation to the hospital’s Medical Staff Council, which we did later that same day.

“These meetings took place after months of assessment and discussion with the hospital’s management to ensure we can continue to provide the best service for local patients and clinicians.”

NSW shadow health minister Walt Secord, however, described the original response on the hospital as “ludicrous, bizarre and straight out of 1984, Yes Minister and ABC TV’s Utopia”. 

“It is mindboggling that the Liberal-National State Government would try to argue that closing a service would improve the quality and care for patients,” he said. 

“It does not make sense to close a service and say that it will be quicker to analyse the results in another location – almost 200 kilometres away.”

Griffith residents have expressed concerns that cancer patients would now have to wait longer for test results – given tissues samples had to be sent to Wagga. 

The Area News asked Ms McCosker to guarantee patients results would be received just as fast as they are now.

Ms McCosker replied, “we can reassure the community the proposed change will not impact the timings in which local clinicians receive their patients’ results”.

Doctors at the hospital say “there’s no way timings could be as fast”. 

Two doctors at the hospital, Dr Narayanan Jayachandran (Jaya) and Dr Maxwell Hopp have risked sanction by positing their concerns on the changes to social media. 

On  Tuesday night, Griffith City Council unanimously endorsed a motion from councillors Dino Zappacosta and Anne Napoli that Council formally put their support behind Dr Jaya and Dr Hopp. 

Griffith residents are urged to write to the NSW health minister, Adrian Piccoli, and NSW premier to state their objection to the changes. Contact details are on the Save Griffith Base Hospital facebook page.

There is also the opportunity to protest the hospital downgrades when the NSW cabinet comes to Griffith on 17 August.