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AMA Victoria president speaks out on rural health
AMA Victoria President Dr Mark Yates has today welcomed measures in the Federal budget for training and attracting new doctors to rural areas but has called for increased government funding for infrastructure and incentives for doctors to redress the decline and erosion of rural health services in Victoria.Dr Yates said Victoria would need increased funding in the Australian Healthcare Agreement, to begin in 2008, to address issues in country Victoria.
In the latest edition of Vicdoc* released this week, Dr Yates said the major problems for the medical workforce in Victoria were a shortage of hospital beds, pay, education and training access, support for overseas trained doctors, locum relief, staff retention, family support, access to community services and IT infrastructure.
“To fill these gaps requires a collective response from Federal and State Government departments rather than maintenance of the current dominant silo mentality.”
Dr Yates said initiatives announced in this month’s State and Federal budgets to aid the provision of rural healthcare were welcome, but did not go far enough.
Dr Yates said AMA Victoria analysis showed a 15 per cent shortfall in hospital bed numbers in rural Victoria.
“Fewer beds can obviously impede retention and recruitment of staff,” he said.
He added government should establish specific funding grants to support local governments in country and outer metropolitan areas to establish facilities, such as housing, practices and equipment, so doctors can be recruited to their area.
Speaking on remuneration and incentives, Dr Yates said hospitals and other employers must offer attractive salary packages to attract doctors to work in rural and regional areas.
Dr Yates said specific strategies were needed to encourage the workforce in their mid-late fifties to continue working whether part-time or full-time. Hospitals and health services needed a flexible funding stream to respond to the needs and interests of this vital cohort of experienced clinicians.
“Hospitals need to have access to additional resources at short notice to allow the employment of new specialist staff, while managing the transition of existing staff either into reduced sessions or well-deserved retirement.
“At the moment country Victorians are faced with ad hoc closure of services forced by funding constraints rather than sound forward planning. We are seeing this in a range of areas from emergency medicine and obstetrics to general surgery.
“Professional programs and service models alone will not solve the problem of rural workforce supply unless they are accompanied by a range of other incentives including good community infrastructure, locum relief measures, adequate remuneration, spouse support and educational support for children. “
Dr Yates urged government to work with the profession to ensure Victoria had access to a workforce that can meet the community’s expectations about availability of high quality care in the mid to long term.
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