Wagga residents will have to wait until at least December 13 to find out whether the city’s hospital name will be changed again.
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The results of a survey carried out during November have to be presented to the board of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) for a decision, and December 13 is the date of the next scheduled meeting.
The MLHD board has said the name of the hospital would be finalised “as soon as possible” after Thursday’s closure of the survey.
The former Wagga Base Hospital became the Wagga Rural Referral Hospital in 2015 as part of the construction of a $282 million new facility, which includes a new multi-storey main building.
But community backlash over the name change has persisted, and in October the board agreed to launch a public survey.
The survey was carried out both online and through the distribution of postcard-style voting cards, which were available at the hospital and through pharmacies.
AN MLHD spokeswoman said the votes were currently being collated.
An online poll conducted by The Daily Advertiser attracted more than 1870 votes.
Of these, 85.5 per cent were in favour of returning to the previous name of Wagga Base Hospital, with 8.0 per cent nominating Wagga Hospital as their preferred option.
Just 6.5 per cent supported the retention of the current title.
One Wagga woman, Catherine Pierce, collected more than 4100 signatures calling for the old name back.
Her call came after she was trapped in an elevator because the emergency operator did not know what the Wagga Rural Referral Hospital was.
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