It comes as Horsham’s Lister House Medical Clinic and other rural practices across the region continue work to secure doctors for multiple vacancies.

Lister House’s appointments capacity was halved after several doctors left the practice for various reasons earlier this year.

Other towns have also lost their general practitioners.

Wimmera Health Care Group announced on Wednesday two new general practitioners would start at its Read Street Medical Clinic in January to help reduce delays for people trying to access appointments.

Assistant minister Dr David Gillespie will visit the Wimmera on January 29. 

Member for Mallee Andrew Broad met with Dr Gillespie and federal health minister Greg Hunt in Canberra in October to highlight the difficulties in attracting and retaining doctors in rural areas.

Mr Broad said there were no easy answers, but a variety of pathways to address the issue.

“I think the revolving door of doctors will always be there, because you’re talking about professional people,” he said.

“Historically, a doctor would turn up in town, put their roots down and live there for 20 years

“Now, even my staff will say, ‘I’ll work for you for three or four years and then move onto something else’. That’s how people are professionally.

“So it becomes about how we structure that. The packages for doctors are quite reasonable, and pay can be pretty good.

“I don’t know about Horsham, but in some areas of the Mallee the packages are upwards of $380,000, plus a house and a car.”

Mr Broad has advocated for the region to be classified as a District of Workforce Shortage area, and believes a classification is likely after Dr Gillespie’s visit.

The District of Workforce Shortage is a government mechanism for ensuring equitable medical service distribution.

“I think we’ll probably get that changed in February. It would give us more opportunity to have overseas-trained doctors and bonded graduate doctors,” Mr Broad said.

“But that’s not the long-term answer.

“People don’t know what they don’t know, and many doctors don’t know how good it is to practice in a regional area.

“So that’s the challenge – that communication.”

Lister House nurse manager Amanda Wilson said the clinic had a few potential candidates in the pipeline to fill its vacancies.

“We’ve been interviewing, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through and a huge amount of red tape to get them here,” she said.

“They have to be the right fit too – the right person for the job and for the area. They have to be sensitive to rural needs, as they are different to other areas.

“They also need to have good customer service and quality of care – that is paramount for us.”

Mrs Wilson has also liaised with Mr Broad about the issues the clinic has faced with a shortage of doctors.

“Many places are affected – not just us – so it’s about looking at the bigger picture,” she said.

“We are a lucky community though in that if you are sick you will get seen. We have a great emergency department in Horsham.

“We ask people to please continue to be patient, and plan and think ahead with appointments.”​