Labor, Nationals, have not promised full-time doctors at Cessnock Hospital's Emergency Department

Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said a promise "was not going to happen before the election" and the National Party gagged its Cessnock candidate, Ash Barnham, from speaking about the issue when The Advertiser contacted him, and then he was disendorsed over comments he made on social media.

The Advertiser went to Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor to find out if a re-elected Coalition government would employ full-time doctors in the Emergency Department 24 hours a day, but she did not respond to the question.

That followed Hunter New England Health's statement earlier this month where it said the hospital was "appropriately staffed and resourced" and it had "medical coverage 24 hours a day".

The lack of support has left Cessnock GP Dr Ken Dobler concerned, saying the hospital had enough patient demand to warrant full-time doctors.

He said doctors were only there for about six hours a day Monday to Friday, and the presence on weekends also varied. When there's no doctor between 11pm and 8am, he said patients were assessed via video link - and the doctor could be as far away as Perth.

In other news:

He said the people of Cessnock and surrounding areas deserved better.

"Everyone who goes to the hospital and finds that there's no doctor there knows that there is a problem," Dr Dobler said.

"I can't understand why anyone won't commit to it, clearly there's a need there and it's not sustainable running a hospital with the size of Cessnock's population without the presence of doctors."

Ms Taylor has previously told Australian Community Media, which publishes this newspaper, that recruitment remained a challenge across the hospital system.

The Advertiser picked up the phone to Shadow Health Minister Ryan Park to ask him why fixing the hospital's doctor crisis wasn't an election promise.

Mr Park said the hospital was "without a doubt" on his radar and what he could guarantee was that "no-one will focus on staffing more than I will".

But he wouldn't commit to alleviating the doctor crisis, saying he had to "find out exactly what the reason is that we can't [have doctors] at the moment".

"I want to make sue that hospital, like all hospitals, are properly staffed and resourced," Mr Park said.

"We want to make sure our hospital's are adequately staffed and that will be my biggest priority going forward."

Hunter New England Health told The Advertiser earlier this month that the Emergency Department was supported by GPs who were "located in the hospital during the day and provide an on-call service overnight from 11pm".

"This model of care exists across many rural and regional facilities in NSW and ensures hospitals, like Cessnock, have medical coverage 24 hours a day," a spokeswoman said.

"When GP VMOs are unavailable and a replacement is unavailable, the hospital uses virtual care to provide medical coverage. This provides on-demand virtual access to Australian-trained emergency physicians accredited by the Australian College of Emergency Medicine."

The spokeswoman said this system did not replace doctors on the ground but it did provide "a reliable alternative when the hospital is unable to secure medical coverage".

Mr Barr and Mr Park said they had spoken about the issue in recent years.

Mr Barr said while there was "no firm commitment doctors will be employed", the party was "committed to all the recommendations" from the NSW Upper House inquiry into rural, regional and remote health services - and his discussions with Mr Park about Cessnock and helped lead to that important probe."

"NSW Health - no matter who gets elected - has to get into the business of employing their own doctors to work in our emergency departments," Mr Barr said.