THE doctor who led the original charge for an upgrade to the existing Tweed Hospital has labelled the current furore as "beyond heartbreaking”.

Emergency anaesthetist Dr Ian McPhee, who headed The Tweed Hospital Medical Staff Council until his forced retirement as a result of cancer in early 2016, has called upon the community to get behind the medicos at the hospital and put patients first.

Speaking out for the first time since the NSW Government announced the preferred site of the proposed new $534million Tweed Valley Hospital at Cudgen, Dr McPhee said he was devastated to see the hard lobbying of medical staff over so many years denigrated by the community division over where the hospital should be built.

"The time for posturing is over,” Dr McPhee said.

"On June 13, it will be a year since the announcement of the new hospital was made and for not one sod to be turned yet is bordering on a disgrace. Every year wasted builds pressure on a site that can't cope (with its current patient load).”

Dr McPhee first moved to the Tweed Hospital in 1994, where he was tasked with establishing the Intensive Care Unit, which he headed for many years before working as an emergency anaesthetist at the facility.

As head of Medical Staff Council, he saw the hospital grow from a regional facility mainly staffed by GPs and few specialists, to an expanded facility offering multi-specialist services.

However, he realised the pressure of the region's exploding population growth meant an upgrade of the Tweed Hospital was vital, and first began lobbying health authorities over the issue in 2011.

"It took years for us to develop a clinical services plan and get to the point where we were able to project a requirement to the minister for funding,” he said.

"Don't let this debate get in the way of getting what's needed: expanded services, new services for a community that deserves to have them here.”

Dr McPhee called on the community to back the doctors and the Cudgen site.

"Think about the reality: we have been crying out and telling people how stretched our services are for so long, and are continuing to do so,” he said.

"The clinicians need the community's help.

"From what they've made public, it would seem NSW Health Infrastructure have acted responsibly.”

The Bilambil specialist, who is in tentative remission from a rare skin cancer,

said he was disappointed some were using the community division over the issue to further their own causes.

"The time for politicking is over, it's been done,” Dr McPhee said.

"The real beating on people's doors was done years ago. We, as a group of clinicians, backed by the community, took people along with us when we lobbied for the hospital.”

Dr McPhee said services were proposed for the new Tweed Valley Hospital which aren't currently available, including core cardiac services, interventional cardiology, advanced oncological services, including on-site radiology and the ability to adapt to evolving surgical developments and evolving systems of care.

"The opportunity to offer patients like me - I'm now a patient - advanced services in multiple disciplines in our own community is a critical component of provincial healthcare,” he said.

"It is being served up to the Tweed community on a platter and here we are arguing over it.

"The crux of the matter is the current hospital is past capacity. We've watched for 25 years as the population's expanded at a rate as high as anywhere else in the nation.

"It's time to just build the bloody thing.”

HEAL OUR HOSPITAL TIMELINE:

• 2011: Dr Ian McPhee spearheads lobbying for upgraded facilities, clinicians work on new Clinical Services Plan to service growing needs of Tweed Hospital.
• Feb 2015: NSW Govt announces $48million for Stage 1 of Tweed Hospital upgrade.
• June 2017: Minister Brad Hazzard announces new $534million Tweed Valley Hospital.
• April 4, 2018: Cudgen site announced as preferred site.
• June 14, 2018: Extended EOI on hospital site set to close.