Medical bodies call for rescue action on rural doctor crisis
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Rural Doctors Association
of Australia (RDAA) are urging the Government to commit to a major
rescue package of rural-specific support incentives to get more
doctors working in country Australia.
Both the AMA and RDAA have identified a range of measures essential
to improving services to country patients including better funding
for rural hospitals, a rural health obligation, expanded specialist
outreach services and better support for patients who have to travel
to receive treatment.
At least 1000 doctors are needed urgently in rural and remote
Australia to ensure even basic access to healthcare in the bush.
Many rural patients now have to wait up to six weeks for a basic
consultation or drive hundreds of kilometres to access a doctor.
RDAA and AMA are calling on the Government to move quickly to
introduce the following two-tiered support structure.
- a Rural Isolation Payment to be paid to all rural
doctors (including GPs, specialists and registrars) to reflect
the isolation associated with rural practice; and
- a Rural Procedural
and Emergency/On Call Loading to better support rural procedural
doctors (including procedural specialists) who provide obstetric,
surgical, anaesthetic or primary emergency on-call service in
rural communities.
The AMA and RDAA estimate the total cost of this rescue package
will be approximately $300 million per year, making it a very cost-effective
way of getting and keeping more doctors in the bush and helping
keep rural communities and rural health services functioning.
RDAA President Dr Peter Rischbieth said: "The crisis facing
rural healthcare is getting worse, not better. There is a point
at which governments will no longer be able to turn this crisis
around and that point is just around the corner.
"By far the biggest ticket item in getting more doctors
to the bush is to urgently introduce real incentive payments that
better support them," he said.
AMA President Dr Rosanna Capolingua said: "The AMA strongly
supports better incentives for rural doctors. We have one voice
behind this proposal demonstrating how critical the situation in
country Australia has become.
"It is time to put in place real measures that will see
more locally trained doctors take up a career in rural Australia," she
said.
The proposed payments would be made through the existing Service
Incentive Program and would be calculated as a loading on rural
doctors' Medicare billings or as a special payment for salaried
rural doctors. The loading would increase with the rurality and
isolation of each doctor (as based on the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan
Areas, or RRMA, classification system).
Media Contacts
 AMA:
Boronia Mooney, on (02) 6270 5471 or 0418 200 750
RDAA:
Michael Bradley on 0420 371 744
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