Last month it was revealed the state government would contribute $1 million towards a precinct in Wagga around the city's two major hospitals as part of a 30-year vision for the region.

Wagga City Council adopted a master plan for the project in December 2019, and Dr McGirr said the concept first came about when the new Wagga Base Hospital was built on Docker Street.

The location is central to a range of local healthcare facilities such as the Calvary hospital, cancer care centre, specialists, mental health unit, private providers and primary health network.

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"In Sydney they have what they call medical precincts ... where the public hospitals and the universities work together to do research and training," Dr McGirr explained, citing the Prince of Wales and Westmead hospitals as examples.

"There's none in regional NSW and we have, in Wagga, in the last few years been working on our own health precinct here."

The precinct - which is in the very early stages of development - would bring together local health providers and education services to train a workforce in the local region, for the local region.

"We train the doctors, the nurses and the allied health people we need for our region here - they don't have to go to Sydney to train," Dr McGirr said.

Aside from the training focus, the precinct would facilitate collaboration between local healthcare providers, and build a research capacity in Wagga so "we can work out ... our health needs in this region and we can develop solutions for that".

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Dr McGirr said he is confident the precinct could become "the blueprint for the rest of regional NSW and maybe even Australia".

"It will finally shift the focus from the city to the regions and to rural areas for health provisions so we're not relying on the city [and] we can manage it on our own," he added.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet spoke briefly of the project while in Wagga this week, saying that "I think that if [the precinct] works it will be a great blueprint for regional health right across the state".

The $1m in funding is currently being put towards consultancy to work out the best model of governance, and a business case will then be developed.

Dr McGirr anticipates for the blueprint to be available within the next 12 months before the next stage of the project commences.

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