I AM sure The Guardian readers were as dismayed as I was to read Tuesday’s front-page headline ‘Doc gap’ on Sunehra Ahmed’s story about Balranald residents being left without a doctor, and the flow-on impact that will have in Swan Hill and Robinvale.
On June 14 I described the situation nationwide as a regional health catastrophe.
The shortage of doctors is not just a New South Wales problem, nor is it a Victorian problem alone.
Tragically, the doctor, nurse and other health professional shortage is an acutely regional Australian problem.
Yes, there are national health workforce shortages but regional Australia is especially suffering.
As Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health, I have been repeatedly pointing out that there are 2.7 general practice (GP) doctors per thousand rural and remote patients, and yet there are 4.3 in the cities.
In regional Australia, an inability to see a doctor – as preventative and primary health care – sees more patients ending up in regional emergency departments, often far from their home due to a lack of staff and acute care services close to where they live.
The buck stops with federal Health Minister Mark Butler.
His tripled Medicare bulk billing incentive is not working – bulk billing rates are down 11 per cent nationwide under Labor.
Regional Australians have a higher incidence of skin cancer detection and lower survival rates, and a higher prevalence of arthritis, asthma, chronic kidney, obstructive pulmonary, coronary heart, stroke and vascular diseases and diabetes – yet federal and state Labor are presiding over a continuous decline of the regional health workforce.
Restrictions on the number of medical training places must be reconsidered.
Soon after being appointed Shadow Minister, I called a Regional Health Workforce summit where workers from the coalface met with peak body representatives to tell government the specific reforms required in regional health.
The Nationals’ policies will reflect those reforms at the next election, which cannot come soon enough for struggling regional Australians.
