GRASSROOTS solutions are needed for the crisis facing our regional health-care workforce.
Thin workforces are affecting nearly every sector in the regions, but health care must be a major priority due to the flow-on effect for every person in our communities.
We are at a point where actions taken now will decide the future health status of those who live in the regions.
Too many people cannot access a general practitioner, which only compromises their health.
Of 2000 respondents to a survey I conducted on health care in Mallee, 30 per cent said they do not have a regular GP.
These people are saying they simply can’t find a GP, whether their old one retired or left town, or they are new in town themselves and no clinics have open books.
Without meaningful intervention things will move beyond crisis – 58 per cent of GP’s in Mallee are aged 55 years and above, that means many are heading to retirement.
And just three per cent of medical graduates are heading to the regions to be a general practitioner.
Doctors are so overloaded that taking on new patients is not an option.
So what are the solutions?
I am delighted to be hosting the first Regional Health Workforce Summit in Mildura next week.
The summit will bring peak health sector leaders to hear from regional doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and allied health staff.
Dr Nick Coatsworth will be asking local health practitioners to share what is really happening on the ground and asking the peak bodies to respond.
From there policy can be developed to shape regional health care into the future.
I know there are no silver bullets for these issues.
But with collaboration and a regional lens we can start the ball rolling on solutions.
It is time to act, and working with the regional workforce is the best place to start.
