The organisers of a grassroots campaign to save Kurri Kurri Hospital are urging the community to get behind their cause.
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Friends of Kurri Kurri Hospital's ePetition contains over 800 signatures, but needs thousands more to be debated in NSW Parliament.
The petition - which is also available at local doctor's surgeries and businesses - asks the NSW Government to "continue providing essential hospital services to our community", including the emergency department, palliative care, medical ward, rehabilitation, pathology and X-ray departments.
It was created out of concern that services at Kurri Kurri will be cut back or closed altogether when the new Maitland Hospital opens next year.
Hunter New England Health has denied rumours the hospital will close.
But Cessnock councillor Rod Doherty, one of the campaign's founders, said the NSW health minister's comments last week that there are "no plans to close any health sites at this stage" has done nothing to ease the minds of supporters of Kurri Kurri Hospital.
Brad Hazzard said it is "too early to say" whether there will be closures of some of the Hunter's smaller hospitals (such as Kurri Kurri and Cessnock) once the new Maitland Hospital and John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct are completed.
"I think we have to keep constantly reviewing all of our facilities," Mr Hazzard said. "When you build you have to look at that. But there are no plans to close any particular facilities at this stage. We're still five years away from the John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct being finished."
Cr Doherty said Friends of Kurri Kurri Hospital has a meeting with Mr Hazzard in June, and that he will be urging the minister to reveal the outcome of a review of Lower Hunter hospitals.
"We have no faith in the statement 'we have no plans to close health sites at this stage'," he said.
"It's not just Kurri Kurri hospital that we're talking about here, it's Cessnock and Dungog too."
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said while he was pleased to hear the minister confirm that there would be no hospital closures at the moment, he still carries two concerns.
"First, does that mean hospital closures in the future? And second, I have concerns about reduced services year by year which ends up being a hospital closure after 1000 cuts," he said.
"I will be meeting with the minister and community representatives in the coming weeks. We will be looking to put some meat on the bones of what the minister has already said, and what that means for Kurri Kurri Hospital in particular."
Mr Barr urges the community to get behind their local hospital, or risk losing it.
"The community do have the chance to show how much they value their local hospital by using their local hospital and all of its services, day in and day out," he said.
"Show that there is a need for the services provided, otherwise it becomes pretty hard to argue that they should stay."
The petition will be open until July at parliament.nsw.gov.au.
