The Rural Doctors Association of Australia is pleading with the Federal Government to retain its incentive program to lure doctors to the bush, following an eerie silence from Health Minister Nicola Roxon after reports that the program would be slashed as part of budget cuts.
The scheme, running since 1991, pays significant bonuses over and above ordinary salaries based on where a doctor works as encouragement for medicos to pick the country to practice and hopefully stay there long-term as well.
In the lead up to the last Federal election, the Australian Medical Association and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia called for the bonuses to be increased and also be expanded to cover over-time, on-call work and where the doctor may be the only GP in the district.
With the RDAA estimating an extra 1800 doctors at least are needed immediately in rural and remote Australia and figures revealing a wait of six weeks or more for a basic consultation in the bush, the association believes any such move will devastate some communities struggling to hold on to a GP.
In its budget submission, RDAA president Dr Nola Maxfield said Australian Governments "continue to spend less per capita on the health care of rural people".
She said lobbying for initiatives and programs to address the severe health workforce shortages in rural and remote Australia were the association's "primary focus" at the moment.
The RDAA also wants the Government, in partnership with the States, to develop a Rural Health Obligation that gives an assurance rural people will be able to access a reasonable level of basic health services in their local communities.
And the RDAA is seeking an absolute assurance from the Government that supports for rural doctors will not be reduced in the forthcoming budget - something that Ms Roxon has as yet been unwilling to provide.
"Working families in rural Australia are finding it increasingly difficult to access local doctors, hospitals and health services," Dr Maxfield said.
"The Rudd Government must, in the forthcoming budget, improve support programs to recruit and retain more doctors in country Australia.
"We have absolutely no problem with the Government reforming rural doctor support programs, as long as 'reforming' the programs isn't just a nice way of saying they are going to be 'axed' or 'cut back', and as long as there is additional funding put behind the programs to make them work.
"Cutting rural doctor support programs simply to save money would be an absolute tragedy for rural and remote communities across Australia, given many of these communities already have no local doctor and residents face up to 300 kilometre round-trips and six week waits to see a distant doctor even for a basic checkup."
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