The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has welcomed the inclusion of rural specific performance indicators in the first report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission.
The report released yesterday includes proposed benchmarks for the next round of the Australian Health Care Agreements, which determines the amount of Commonwealth funding the States receive for health services, with specific rural benchmarks being included.
"This is the first real progress that we have seen from the new Rudd Government in starting to address the very real crisis that exists in rural health services in Australia," RDAA president, Dr Peter Rischbieth, said.
"The fact that the NHRRC are recommending that all the indicators, recommended for inclusion in the next Australian Healthcare Agreements, measure and compare between rural and metropolitan is a significant advance.
"It recognises that rural Australians should be able to expect the same health outcomes as their metropolitan counterparts."
Dr Rischbieth wants the State and Federal Ministers for Health to adopt the rural indicators so that people in the bush are able to judge how effective services are in comparison to people who live in the cities.
"Having indicators is a first step but if action is not taken to address the disadvantage rural Australians suffer the indicators will do little more than confirm the current sad truth that if you live in the bush that you can expect to be sicker and have a shorter life than if you lived in the city," he said.
"The Government must act now to put in place rural specific financial incentives to attract Australian graduates to rural practice, provide support for rural practices and health service infrastructure and ensure adequate workload supports such as locum relief."