AN INVESTIGATION is underway into how three doctors at Inverell Hospital were allowed to regularly administer anaesthetic to patients without appropriate supervision.
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Anaesthetic services involving the doctors have been suspended while records of patients treated by the doctors are being reviewed.
Hunter New England Health spokesperson said no adverse outcomes had been identified to date.
"The district is continuing to investigate how this error occurred and has put processes in place to ensure this does not happen again," the spokesperson said.
Authorities are now scrambling to get anaesthetic services back up and running at the hospital.
Patients needing procedures under anaesthetic, including elective surgery, may need to be treated at another regional hospital.
"We want to assure the community that we are working to address this issue," the spokesperson said.
The issue has drawn the ire of Inverell mayor Paul Harmon.
"I am extremely frustrated by problems at the hospital and as a council, we're not in a position to fix those, but we're expected to have some form of resolution," Cr Harmon said.
"We're not a backwater town they [health authorities] can keep dismissing.
"It seems we're always kept in the dark about these issues. Now, the community and council are becoming frustrated and I will be seeking further clarification from the district."
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said the hospital had always relied on locums and he had raised the matter of the lack of an anaesthetist at Inverell Hospital with NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.
"Elective surgery waiting times have been a big priority for him [Mr Park] and the [NSW] Government," Mr Marshall said.
It was just three years ago the hospital received a $60 million upgrade, bringing the town's primary and allied health services under the one roof for the first time.
But ever since the hospital, which serves about 20,000 people, has been plagued by problems.
In 2022, Mr Marshall described Inverell Hospital as being on "bypass" because there was no doctor on duty for up to 10 days.
Then in November last year members of Inverell Health Forum submitted a damning report on the area's parlous health care system to a NSW parliamentary inquiry into remote, rural and regional health.
The submission told how Inverell Hospital was often left without a doctor on duty, while ambulance resources were wasted on transporting patients to other towns.
The hospital has 52 beds and caters for the north western region of the Northern Tablelands, offering emergency care as well as maternity services, surgical, paediatric, outpatients and renal dialysis.
