Hunter New England Health (HNE Health) yesterday listened to the collective voice thousands of people in the Manning Valley who rallied to fight to keep the centre open.

Thousands of petition signatures and persistent lobbying of HNE Health by Greater Taree City Council mayor, Paul Hogan, Dr David Keegan and members of the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre Protest Group forced HNE Health to revisit the decision and according to chief executive Michael DiRienzo, act to ensure the centre will continue to operate in its current location with no dialysis chairs to be relocated to Forster Private Hospital.

Mr DiRienzo says HNE Health "will not pursue the proposed relocation and will instead focus on improving the existing structure."

He says HNE Health has "gone back to the drawing board and devised a plan to ensure it can continue to serve the community."

"I have involved the district's capital works team and they will begin modification to make the building safer and more accessible in the New Year," Mr DiRienzo said.

"Services will remain as they are. The biggest issue was the water treatment plant but we can actually maintain that system quite confidently for the next three to four years.

"It gives us a really good opportunity to have a look at our renal services in Taree."

Greater Taree City Council mayor Paul Hogan described the announcement as "good news" and added that he "would continue to work with HNE Health to provide dialysis chairs to Forster Private Hospital."

"HNE Health has promised to better engage with council on decisions that affect health services in our area. That's a great outcome."

The failure of HNE Health to consult with the community and engage with key stakeholders sat front and centre in public discussion of the issues relating to the current and future delivery of renal services in the Manning Valley.

Dr David Keegan first revealed fractures in communication between the Manning Hospital Medical Staff Council, Manning Hospital general manager Tricia Bulic and HNE Health in relation to its decision to close the centre. Dr Keegan was one of 13 doctors at the September 4 meeting of the Medical Staff Council to learn of the closure of the centre from HNE Health director of acute services, Todd McEwan.

In the wake of the announcement, Dr Keegan chose to speak to the issue of the centre closure and relocation of dialysis chairs, saying that "it just doesn't stack-up and so we are not sure of the logic of why they are doing it it could be economies of scale, the contract, we are not sure of that, but the whole thing is shrouded in secrecy."

Further, last week medical staff council chairman, Dr Murray Hyde-Page spoke to the increasing discontent of doctors and staff about the lack of consultation pertaining to the management and provision of services at the hospital. He says the medical staff council now bypass Ms Bulic to direct its communications to HNE Health executives in Newcastle.

Yesterday Mr DiRienzo acknowledged that "consultation and getting opinion from the community was not done so well".

"The disappointment for me here is that I would have liked to have been more involved in some of the process around the decision," Mr DiRienzo said.

"We've learned a lot from this particular experience. What the community has given (HNE Health) is the opportunity to go back and look at some of the evidence and some of the information that was being provided recommending that there should be a transfer of chairs to Forster Private Hospital."

Mr DiRienzo committed to working with people in the front line of renal services delivery to develop a plan.

"It will be lead by our renal services manager and our nephrologist. We have had a good talk about how that they have felt isolated from the district in terms of renal services and the decision making process," Mr DiRienzo said.

Mr DiRienzo added that HNE Health would now work with Forster Private Hospital to "find an arrangement to provide local people with treatment closer to home."