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.
