The inquiry was established in September 2020, to investigate the state of healthcare in regional NSW, and the access to hospital services in rural, regional and remote New South Wales.

After years of debate, reports and interviews, the results have been released and the picture it paints is not pretty.

Key findings show that patients in regional areas have significantly poorer health outcomes than those in metro areas, with more incidents of chronic disease and more premature deaths. The same patients also face significant financial challenges in order to access health services to begin with - paying more for worse outcomes.

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The report also notes that staff are significantly under resourced in regional areas, with a dire shortage of health professionals.

The outcomes are even worse for the Indigenous population - with some still facing discrimination and racism when seeking medical assistance in some areas and telehealth creating a brand-new hurdle in accessing culturally appropriate health services.

The report comes with 44 recommendations to improve outcomes for regional patients - including establishing a palliative care taskforce, reviewing financial incentives for rural healthcare trainees and increased transport services.

Member for Murray and long-time advocate for regional health Helen Dalton has said the recommendations are not enough. She tied it into recent strikes from nurses and midwives.

"We need the NSW Government to mandate safe patient-to-staff ratios in all our hospitals, as Victoria has done," Mrs Dalton said.

"But this isn't a recommendation in this report. If we don't have better conditions for our nurses and midwives, we will keep losing them to other states."

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Mrs Dalton added that pay and conditions were so much better in metropolitan areas that it would not attract new workers.

"At present, NSW health professionals and workers can get superior pay and conditions working on Sydney's North Shore than they get in a rural town like Deniliquin. So why would anyone move out west?"

"The report recommends reviewing pay structures, but what we need is immediate increases in base rates of pay and more financial incentives for those working in rural areas."

She did feel good about the recommendation to introduce an independent Ombudsman to investigate complaints, but said it would need to be properly staffed and have real power.

"The fact that hundreds of submissions to the rural health inquiry were anonymous tells you the extent to which Government have bullied and silenced our health workforce,"

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