Abstract

During the 1990s, rural health became more prominent on the political agenda. Through the 20th century, the NSW Department of Health and its antecedents contributed to subsidies raised by local communities to attract and retain doctors; progressively increased its rural workforce; and, especially in the period following the Second World War, constructed many small rural hospitals. In the 1970s, the NSW Health Commission took the initial structural steps to decentralise health service administration to the regions.