A list of 117 NSW hospitals senior health clinicians claim will struggle to survive under the reforms was published by the Daily Telegraph on Friday.

Mudgee, Gulgong and Dunedoo War Memorial Hospitals were all listed.

The clinicians claimed the hospitals were at risk because of the pay-for-service model Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was proposing, a claim Mr Rudd said was untrue.

Because the hospitals have fewer procedures, they could see a drop in the funds allocated to them.

Mudgee Health Council chairperson James Loneragan said they would be fighting hard to keep the hospital open if it even looked like there was a chance it would close.

“The closest hospital to Mudgee is an hour and a half away by road,” Mr Loneragan said.

“There needs to be a place you can get emergency treatment and a hospital that can look after people that need to be admitted.”

Gulgong Chamber of Commerce chairperson Allan McSweyn said it was not viable for Gulgong Hospital to be shut down.

“With a massive influx of mining in the community it would have a devastating effect on the whole region,” Mr McSweyn said.

Health minister Nicola Roxon quashed the claims, telling the ABC that nothing in the Federal Governments plan threatened smaller hospitals.

She said a “national pricing agency” would determine the cost of procedures such as hip surgery in areas such as “Dubbo or Grafton” as compared to Sydney.

The Prime Minister was adamant “nothing” in the planned Australian Health and Hospital Network “would justify the closure of a single hospital or a single hospital bed”.

Ms Roxon told the ABC “a regional and rural loading” meant additional payments would be made “where service provision is more expensive”.

A “national pricing agency” would determine what hip surgery should cost.

“We would expect that what it costs in the middle of Sydney should be the same as Melbourne,” she said.

“But we don’t think that it will be the same price if you have to do that procedure in Dubbo or in Alice Springs.”

Also included on the list were hospitals in Wellington, Narromine, Cobar, Parkes and Coonamble.