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HEALTH minister Greg Hunt has prioritised a rural health workforce package in this year’s budget to help regions including the Wimmera address worker shortages.
Mr Hunt was in the Wimmera on Wednesday to meet health service representatives and discuss issues including attracting and retain health professionals.
He also visited the site of the Wimmera Cancer Centre in Horsham, where construction started last month.
His visit comes after Member for Mallee Andrew Broad advocated for Mr Hunt to see first-hand the impact of the region’s doctor shortage.
Multiple towns are without general practitioners, or are having trouble filling other health roles including nursing and allied health positions.
Some roles have been vacant for more than two years.
Mr Hunt said there was no question there was a doctor shortage in the region, and his visit was about giving a message of practical hope that the federal government could and would help.
He said the workforce package had three aims.
“Firstly it’s about teaching doctors in the Murray-Darling basin. That doesn't mean in every town but it will help massively with attraction and retention of young doctors who are from the region,” he said.
“The second thing is a pathway for specialists to do majority of their training in the regions, and have this as their base.
“We've commissioned Professor James Angus – who was the dean of medicine at the University of Melbourne – to oversee that. He set up a lot of their rural clinical schools.
“The third thing is we're looking at ways of attracting young junior doctors to make the country their home, and not just to come as a locum.
“So right now we're looking at ideas such as the rural provider number, where doctors who can't access Medicare in the city would be able to do it in the country.”
Mr Hunt said he would immediately review the possibility of a District of Workforce Shortage classification for the Wimmera.
The federal government measure aims to ensure adequate medical services are available in areas of the greatest need.
A District of Workforce Shortage is applied when an area has less access to medical services than the national average.
“That's a straight numeric calculation. No false promises because that's enshrined in legislation, but I'll look at how it is calculated in relation to this region,” Mr Hunt said.
“Either way, there will be more access to more doctors. It won't happen overnight – we can't force them to move – but we can encourage a greater number of Australian-trained doctors to come into the region, and it's my number one priority in the next six months.”