“When they’re doing a budget with a surplus of $4.5 billion, I can’t see that $15 million would not have been reasonable,” the long-term local campaigner for hospital improvement said of the initial funding release. 

“Five million as far as I’m concerned is not going to be enough to get through the first year.”

Mr Bensley has been pushing for more local hospital funding since 2001 and said he is not criticising but congratulating Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall for achieving this week’s $30 million commitment.

“Adam Marshall has moved heaven and earth to get to this point,” he said.

After more than a decade of advocating for an Inverell Hospital upgrade, Mr Bensley said he was disappointed by the regional health authority’s response to the push for improvements. 

Looking back to promises he said were made by Hunter New England Health at a community meeting in Inverell on March 29, 2016, Mr Bensley reported a number of commitments had not been fulfilled. They included not passing on a clinical plan to local community members; a lack of ongoing community involvement in project planning stages; and a failure to distribute regular progress reports.  

“Hunter New England Health have dragged their feet at every point,” Mr Bensley said.

“Adam Marshall did the leg work to convince the minister of the needs for the hospital and then it had been up to Hunter New England Health to drive it from there.”