The Nationals candidate for Mallee at the 2019 Federal Election has suggested upskilling the Wimmera's nurses into nurse practitioners to combat the region's chronic doctor shortage.
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Dr Anne Webster said she had heard from patients in the southern Mallee communities of Underbool and Murrayville about the effectiveness of such a strategy.
"A nurse practitioner, once she has skilled up, can manage chronic care, triage and do repeat prescriptions," Dr Webster said.
"This is effectively a 12-month program whereby nurses could really assist by taking increasing their roles so that some of them are the same as those of GPs. Should I be successful, one of the things I will be pushing for is how that could roll out into our regional areas such as Horsham, Warracknabeal and Nhill."
Dr Webster said nurses could become qualified as nurse practitioners by studying Commonwealth-supported postgraduate courses part-time online while still working.
"We've already got nurse practitioners, there are just very few of them," she said.
"The reports I've heard from people who live in the areas they operate is there is tremendous trust and they work very effectively, whereas otherwise people need to make appointments hundreds of kilometres away and wait for two to three weeks to see a doctor."
She said this would help address the shortage of GPs until 2030, when the first group of medical professionals trained at Monash University's upcoming medical school in Mildura became fully qualified.
"They will begin their training in Mildura, and the premise behind that is if we have people who live and learn locally then they will stay local," she said.
Dr Webster expected these students to undertake some of their placements in Wimmera-based institutions.