FINDING an appointment with a GP in Mallee is incredibly difficult. Those who have no existing GP are facing desperate circumstances finding that most clinics have closed their books.
Existing patients face an average appointment wait of four weeks. In regional communities, the primary health care shortages are turning preventative health issues into emergencies.
Our already crippled EDs are being put under further substantial strain. This situation is untenable, and we are at crisis point.
As I have said many times before, we have levers to pull to address our primary health care situation. We need both short term and long term solutions. We need immediate measures to target the shortfall that is crippling regional Australia.
The short-term solution has been stymied by the recent Labor government decision to expand the Distribution Priority Areas.
It is appalling that in this time of crisis, the new government has taken to bleeding our already meagre resources to urban settings like Elizabeth, Frankston or Paramatta. In practice, this means that internationally trained doctors can choose to practice in urban settings, where they were previously unable. This DPA is designed to ensure doctors settle in the bush. Labor have now weakened the mechanism for regional and rural Australia.
When probed on the justification of their actions in the Senate this week, Labor Minister Katy Gallagher equated rural doctor shortages to Canberra’s.
Again, we see the Labor Government uninformed and apathetic toward the issues facing rural and regional Australia.
Long-term solutions are to make medical training available in local universities in partnership with hospitals. Students who study locally are 60 per cent more likely to remain. Doctors that train rural, stay rural. I will continue to advocate for this as a first step to increasing doctors in the region.
When in government, the Nationals implemented a suite of initiatives that incentivised doctors to practice in regional settings.
In Parliament this week, I urged the government to implement solutions urgently, to get our community off waiting lists, out of tents in car parks, and into quality, affordable and timely health care.
