- RELATED: Clinic’s battle to attract staff
MEMBER for Mallee Andrew Broad has called for immediate action to address a Wimmera doctor shortage.
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Mr Broad met Australia’s Assistant Health Minister David Gillespie this month to discuss the federal government’s District Workforce Shortage system, and advocate for changes. Mr Broad said the system was flawed.
”It works on one doctor being able to service a population of about 980 people,” he said.
“In some of our areas we have doctors who are serving substantially more than that, but somehow they don’t fit the system.
“It also fails to account for specialty practitioners and casual or part-time workers.
“Our regional towns aren’t one size fits all and it’s time regional Australians received the health services they so desperately need.”
Mr Broad also spoke in federal parliament this month about the region’s struggle to find replacements for doctors who had retired or moved away.
He said doctor shortages were an issue across his electorate, including in Mildura.
He highlighted how Horsham had lost nine doctors in a short timeframe, despite government incentives to keep doctors in rural areas.
He said rural doctors received $3 more on a bulk-billing than a doctor practising in an urban area.
“Horsham is a vibrant town of 20,000 people. There are great education facilities, and it’s a great place to live – if we’re not able to attract doctors we’ve obviously got some of the settings wrong,” he said.
“We need to up the incentives and take a deeper look at why we are having trouble attracting doctors in our country towns and the steps we can take to fix that.
“People who live in regional Australia deserve the same level of care as those in the city.”