Hospitals and GPs key to abortion access in regional NSW, former Albury councillor and GP says.

Speaking at a forum on the state of access to abortion in NSW on Monday night, Dr Cohn said that "not a huge amount has changed" since abortion was decriminalised in 2019.

Dr Cohn said the upcoming election in NSW was an opportunity to pressure governments to fund and address regional healthcare.

"It is really interesting living in Albury-Wodonga where 10 minutes away across the Murray River in Victoria all public hospitals have to be able to provide surgical abortion. It is part of their funding agreement with the state government," Dr Cohn said.

"The skills and the resources are already there, it is just about organising it."

Dr Cohn said that GPs should be supported to prescribe medical abortions to help bridge the service gap.

"There is real low-hanging fruit in supporting and facilitating more GPs to become prescribers of medical abortion. That is going to hugely improve access," Dr Cohn said.

"Only 10 per cent are registered prescribers. At the moment you have to do some extra training to become registered."

"It only takes about a day, it is free, but we're asking GPs to take unpaid leave to do that."

This week the regional health minister Bronnie Taylor called for community feedback as the department prepares to release its ten-year regional health plan.

The plan's priorities include enabling 'better access to safe, high quality and timely health services', which would include the delivery of appropriate health services.

Dr Cohn recommended funding to set up a hotline and for GP training would go a way towards the provision of equitable health services outlined in the plan.

"A small amount of funding would go a really long way to cover the costs for GPs to take the day off work to do the training, and then perhaps something like a hotline to a specialist for secondary consultation," Dr Cohn said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"We know that it is not that 90 per cent of GPs are conscientious objectors, so there is a huge group of GPs who would provide if they were supported to."

Despite enduring challenges without a coordinated model of service delivery, changes such as the safe access to reproductive health clinics legislated in NSW and Victoria offer measurable relief.

"We had a lot of experience in Albury with a very organised anti-choice movement. They used to protest our clinic in Albury prior to 2019," Dr Cohn said.

"It really speaks for the need for these services to be provided as part of mainstream health."

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: