Murrumbidgee Local Health District chief executive Jill Ludford was questioned during a public hearing where doctors at Deniliquin Hospital said they were working up to 100 hours a week and considering quitting en masse.

Ms Ludford and MLHD medical services director Len Bruce were in Deniliquin on April 29 for the first in a series of hearings in the NSW upper house inquiry into regional and rural healthcare, which will visit Wagga and Tumut in October.

The hearings are not live-streamed, and the transcript of the Deniliquin hearing was released the following week.

The Daily Advertiser understands MLHD staff have since held a meeting with doctors in Deniliquin.

During the hearing, Labor MLC Walt Secord questioned Ms Ludford and said he had heard from Riverina communities who were concerned about their local health district.

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"What do you say to medical observers that the Murrumbidgee Local Health District is the most under pressure local health district in its hospitals and medical staff in the State?" he asked.

Ms Ludford said she could appreciate that communities were "feeling overwhelmed" but the MLHD was "not the only local health district in this situation".

"I think what the [inquiry] committee will hear over the coming months throughout the whole year is that the whole rural sector is actually under pressure," she said.

"And that we really need to look at different ways of how we structure and provide our services, particularly our medical cover for hospitals."

Ms Ludford said the "existing structures" needed "some work, some alignment" but that she was committed to improving medical services in the district.

Speaking to The Daily Advertiser following the hearing, long-time Deniliquin health advocate Shirlee Burge said she was angry about what she had heard from Ms Ludford and Dr Bruce on the day.

"I would hope [the NSW government] can't ignore it. Its a major crisis," she said.

"There has to be a care factor for the people of rural NSW and at the moment there isn't one."

Mrs Burge also spoke at the hearing, where she said the lack of medical services was forcing residents across the border to Victoria.

She said 35 per cent of Echuca Hospital's patients came from Deniliquin.

Among Mrs Burge's concerns was the limited paediatric services available in Deniliquin, which is almost a three hour drive from Wagga Base Hospital and is closer to the Victorian centres of Shepparton and Echuca.

The issue of paediatric services emerged as a point of contention during the hearing, with speakers noting there was at least a perception in the community that children couldn't be treated in some instances at the hospital.

Deniliquin Health Action Group chair Marion Magee, a local doctor, said health services in the community had "remarkably deteriorated" in her 32 years' practicing medicine in the town.