Staff, patients and members of the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre Protest Committee this week quietly celebrated the outcome of a two-month community campaign that exposed serious issues pertaining to HNE Health management of process, consultation with key medical and community stakeholders, renal service staff, patients attending the centre and fractures in the professional relationship between Manning Hospital general manager, Tricia Bulic and the Manning Hospital Medical Staff Council.

On Tuesday, HNE Health chief executive officer Michael DiRienzo visited Taree to meet with Greater Taree City Council mayor, Paul Hogan in response to his repeated requests for a meeting to discuss the decision to close the centre and relocate dialysis chairs to Forster Private Hospital. The December 2 meeting at council chambers saw Mr DiRienzo deliver the news that the status quo would remain at the centre. However, with that advice Cr Hogan said he "would continue to work with HNE Health to provide dialysis chairs to Forster Private Hospital."

Dr David Keegan of the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre Protest Committee echoed the comments of Cr Hogan and stated that they would now seek to support the needs of renal dialysis patients in the Forster community.

A ballpark figure of around 7000 petition signatures were quickly gathered by the committee from the Manning Valley community to protest the HNE Health decision and Dr Keegan says the retention of the centre and chairs in Taree was just step one.

"Step two should have been that there would be a satisfaction of the needs of the Forster community," Dr Keegan said.

"At no stage did the committee campaign to stop Forster. In fact we constantly said to HNE Health that we want both, and the reason we can justify that is that the HNE Health Clinical Services Plan and The Building Master Plan is not just about Manning Hospital, it's about the needs of this area and when they define the community it serves it effectively covers the council areas of the Great Lakes, Gloucester and Greater Taree."

Dr Keegan is damning of the process that occurred in relation to the HNE Health decision to close the centre in 2015 and understands why Forster Private Hospital and patients in the Great Lakes area would "feel aggrieved" by the news that the dialysis chairs would remain in Taree.

"The whole process was flawed. They (HNE Health) said there was not adequate consultation, well, there was effectively no consultation," Dr Keegan said.

"I've seen the minutes of what was supposed consultation with patients of Nita Reed where point one was, 'it's closing', point three was, 'the contract's already signed'.

"We had a process whereby the private hospital at Forster feels that they have been dudded because they have already spent a lot of money. They have obviously been told a long time ago that this was a done deal. So persons feel aggrieved."

Dr Keegan said he had spoken to a member of the community board of the hospital and would work to help them mount a campaign to secure dialysis chairs and added that it was time the spotlight was thrown on the funding of critical services at Manning Hospital that cater to residents of Great Lakes, Greater Taree, Bulahdelah and Gloucester.

"It's a big area with real needs and dialysis services is just one area of critical need that has been identified in the clinical services plan," Dr Keegan said.

"If you have a problem at Bulahdelah you go to Manning Hospital, if you have a problem at Forster and it's too big to handle, well then you go to Manning Hospital, if you need acute care you have to go to Manning Hospital.

"Manning Hospital has a number of areas of major need, renal dialysis, oncology services and pathology and stage one of the Building Master Plan needs $21 million.

"The Nita Reed outcome is good and we have had a success, but the process was flawed from the outset and it looks like they are sheeting home the blame to the local administration but it really goes much higher than that.

"When decisions are made like that and in those sorts of services, they are made at higher levels. For instance Manning Hospital didn't get funding again this year despite being promised it for the last three years by our local member (member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead), but Kempsey Hospital got almost $90 million and that wasn't on any priority list anywhere, and the local area health service said that it was made at a higher level, a political level, for Kempsey to get almost $90 million. Now Kempsey is only 25-30 minutes from Port Macquarie and Port Macquarie has gotten a few hundred million over the last few years, whereas Manning Hospital keeps missing out."

Member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead yesterday spoke to the decision of HNE Health to not close the Nita Reed Community Dialysis Centre.

He said he was pleased with the announcement by HNE Health that the centre would continue in its current location.

"From the beginning, the decision to move dialysis chairs from the Nita Reed Centre to Manning Hospital was an operational matter for HNE," Mr Bromhead said.

"Despite this, and behind the scenes, I have held many discussions with HNE to point out the problems associated with their decision."

He said "dialysis patients from the Great Lakes comprised around 40 per cent of patients attending the Nita Reed Centre" and added that "the good news for those patients is that the not-for-profit Cape Hawke Hospital has already committed more than $550,000 and is currently building its own dialysis unit."