When something goes wrong in healthcare, the consequences can be physically, emotionally, and financially devastating. Yet for people living outside Sydney and other metropolitan centres, the road to answers and accountability is often far more difficult.

Across regional NSW, patients face unique barriers to justice when substandard medical care causes harm. Access to specialist legal advice is limited, travel distances are long, and health systems themselves are often under-resourced.

Together, these factors create conditions where medical errors can occur more easily and where they are harder to challenge.

Recent data from the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) shows that more than 9400 complaints were made in 2023-24, with more than half involving people in regional and rural areas. Many related to treatment delays, poor communication, and substandard care; the same issues that regularly underpin medical negligence claims.

Nationally, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care estimates that 6.6 per cent of public hospital admissions and 3.8 per cent of private hospital admissions involve an adverse event, about half of which are potentially preventable. These figures equate to tens of thousands of Australians each year who suffer harm during treatment.

In NSW, regional hospitals also record higher rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations than city counterparts, according to the Bureau of Health Information. That means patients in areas such as the Hunter are statistically more likely to experience complications that could have been avoided with earlier or better care.

A recent doctors’ strike over unsafe working conditions in NSW public hospitals highlights the pressures within the system. When exhausted staff warn that current conditions are unsafe for both clinicians and patients, it underscores how patient safety can become compromised.

It’s no coincidence that the same hospitals struggling to retain doctors are those where patients often report poor continuity of care or delayed treatment.

When a patient in a regional area experiences harm, their ability to seek answers or compensation depends on access to specialist legal expertise. Medical negligence cases are complex. They require lawyers who can interpret medical records, engage expert witnesses, and understand clinical decision-making, not just legal principles.

Yet many of the state’s most experienced medical negligence firms are based in Sydney. That forces regional families to navigate long distances and unfamiliar systems at an already traumatic time.

It’s a gap that firms like Catherine Henry Lawyers have spent years working to close, building regional capability in health law so that people can get the help they need close to home.

The firm’s team brings together more than 70 years of combined experience across medicine and law including lawyers with clinical backgrounds as nurses, doctors, and accredited specialists.

This dual expertise helps bridge the gap between the medical and legal worlds, ensuring that clients are heard and understood.

For most clients, a medical negligence case isn’t only about compensation. It’s about answers – understanding what went wrong, ensuring accountability, and helping to prevent the same harm from happening to someone else.

Each case also contributes to broader system improvement. By challenging unsafe practices, identifying procedural gaps, and holding institutions accountable, medical negligence litigation helps drive change that benefits all patients, not just those directly affected.

Everyone deserves safe, quality healthcare and the opportunity to seek justice when that standard is not met. For regional and rural NSW, that means access to specialist health law expertise.

Because, like medical treatment, justice shouldn’t depend on your postcode. And when harm does occur, every patient, whether they are in Newcastle, Dubbo, or Bourke, deserves the same opportunity to find answers, seek redress, and help make the system safer for everyone.

Catherine Henry is the principal of Catherine Henry Lawyers.

This opinion piece appeared in the Newcastle Herald on 14 November 2025.