It is time to bring back the love to Eden-Monaro and not just because a by-election has been called. I had first hand experience at Cooma emergency department when my son cut his knee open. In hindsight I should have gone to Canberra but Cooma was closer and he was in a lot of pain. We sat in the waiting area for five hours and arrived home close to midnight. We only needed two stitches but we were triaged for one doctor who was managing ambulances arriving to a full waiting room.

We know 44 per cent of our coastal residents get transported to Canberra, Goulburn or even Sydney when they need urgent or surgical medical treatment. Money was promised to build the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital with a time frame of 2023 and now they are saying it will be 2031.

This is just not good enough and it is time for Eden-Monaro to be given some priority. We need a hospital to get access to the medical staff that would allow them to further develop regional specialist services and therefore more local treatment options. A level-four hospital would provide intensive care services in a small unit, expanding the range of patients that could remain local for treatment. This is what all cities have and we deserve the same level of medical care.

I would like to see mental health services including an acute inpatient unit with an appropriate number of inpatient beds, drug and alcohol services, paediatric services, intensive care/high dependency unit, maternity services with special care nursery and radiation oncology.

I am not a resident of the Narooma region.

I miss out on being a voter in the Eden-Monaro electorate by 6.7 kilometres. However, I do know about the Narooma population's health needs.

What will be the relevance of Narooma in the Eden-Monaro by-election?

The population from Tilba to Bodalla is approximately 7500 - nearly 20 per cent of the Eurobodalla's population. Narooma is 46km from Moruya and 85km from Bega. It is 217km from Canberra and 188km from Nowra. Narooma residents are the most likely to be affected geographically by the development of a single level-four hospital for the shire. This is likely to be ameliorated by a proposed Moruya bypass.

Considering 114,140 electors in Eden-Monaro, the Narooma region Is about 5 per cent of the electorate. Eden-Monaro was won by a 0.9 per cent margin of 1,685 votes on two-party preferences. The small region could have a significant effect on the by-election.

Although the yet to be commenced level-four Eurobodalla regional hospital will be situated in the electorate of Gilmore, an MP with foresight and without parochialism will see the big picture of the benefits to the Far South Coast, from Milton-Ulladulla to the Victorian border, of a level 4 hospital in the Eurobodalla.

Such a candidate should lobby for improved services for Narooma residents by supporting the services in the northern Eden-Monaro and southern Gilmore electorates through Federal capital funding for infrastructure.

There remains the need for the establishment of radiation oncology services and for extended mental health services, promised during the last election campaign. The Far South Coast needs perinatal and early parenting services. We need tertiary education facilities. We just need a new hospital to put these in.

Ask your candidates: "What are you going to do about the development of a new regional hospital for our community?"