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Rural doctor support welcome - State budget
AMA Victoria President Dr Mark Yates said the State budget offered few surprises, but importantly recognised the need to address the rapidly declining number of doctors in country Victoria.“The $3.5 million government funding boost for rural hospitals is significant for country Victoria and will provide much needed support for GPs who are providing essential out of hours emergency services in rural hospitals,” Dr Yates said.
“This was a priority item in the AMA Victoria budget submission and we are pleased with the decision to increase support for GPs providing out of hours emergency services in rural hospitals.
“Doctors everywhere are working extremely long hours to meet community demand for medical care but in rural Victoria the pressure on doctors is driving them out of country Victoria.
“AMA Victoria also welcomes the government’s recognition that it needs to follow the example of other states and proactively recruit doctors and the recognition of the importance of maintaining consistently high standards of doctors working in Victoria.
Dr Yates said other positive moves in the budget for regional health included the commitment of $1.35 million to support 11 GPs to undertake training to provide obstetric, anaesthetics, general surgery, emergency medicine and mental health care in rural hospitals and $1.1 million to provide an addition15 training posts for advance specialist trainees in rural areas.
“These initiatives are welcome, however, AMA Victoria believes more can and must be done to tackle the rural doctor shortage and looks forward to continuing to work with the State Government.”
AMA Victoria also welcomed the capital investment for the following projects:
• $4million ($16 million over four years) to start the rebuild of the Warrnambool hospital
• $500,000 to begin an upgrade at Ballarat hospital
• $500,000 to begin planning for the Bendigo hospital upgrade
• $1 million and $900,000 to begin upgrading residential aged care facilities at Nathalia and Leongatha
“It is important for communities to note the commitment for some of these projects such as Warrnambool hospital is far less than the $90 million the State Government promised in the lead-up to the election,” Dr Yates said.
State health budget break down
Mental Health:
“The 4.7 per cent increase on the previous year for mental health services is disappointing.
“There is no question the government has identified the priority areas however the funding support falls short of the need.
“AMA Victoria’s call for prevention and recovery beds has been acknowledged by the government however we had hoped for a far more significant investment in adolescent early psychosis prevention and intervention services.
“AMA Victoria had highlighted to the government the need for an additional $50 million over the next three years for adolescent early intervention programs alone. The government has allocated just $2.4 million this year.
“The expansion of mental health teams supporting emergency departments is much needed and welcome.”
The capital expenditure to expanded mental health services at the Northern Hospital is also welcome.”
Outpatients:
“It is pleasing to note the government’s acknowledgement in this budget of the importance of community access to public outpatient services with an increase of 7.3 per cent over last year.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to the review of access to outpatient facilities now underway to inform government of the delays being faced by the community and the impact this is having on all sectors of the community but particularly the elderly. “
Elective surgery
“The increase in elective surgery capacity especially in suburban and regional hospitals is much needed and welcome.”
ICU beds:
“It is our estimate that Victoria needed at least 25 additional intensive care beds a year over the next three years, this budget has funded just five adult ICU beds.
“The shortage of ICU beds will result in continued long waits for patients in emergency departments and patients waiting for major surgery will continue to face cancellations due to the shortage.”
More doctors:
Training
“The budget seems to show renewed commitment to supporting medical education and specialist training with a boost of 21.5 per cent in the Training & Development Grant to public hospitals.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to clear attribution by hospitals of this additional funding, so that it does indeed support teaching and training.”
Rural doctor shortage
“This was a priority item in the AMA Victoria budget submission and we are pleased with the decision to increase support for GPs providing out of hours emergency services in rural hospitals.
“The budget support for GPs providing after hours emergency medical services in rural hospitals and continued support for rural GPs to undertake training to be able to offer services such as obstetrics, anaesthetics, general surgery, emergency medicine and mental health care goes some way towards addressing the rural doctor shortage however more needs to be done.
“AMA Victoria looks forward to working with the government to establish other solutions which will secure high quality
Aged care:
“The state government deserves credit for continuing to upgrade rural aged care facilities and support for dementia care in community and hospital settings.”
Co-ordinated care
“The government’s recognition of the importance of continuity of care between hospitals, the GP and community care providers will be welcomed by doctors and the patient advocacy groups AMA Victoria has been working with over the past 18 months to raise awareness of the issues confronted by doctors and their patients on discharge from hospital.”
“We look forward to tangible improvements in this area which causes a great deal of stress especially for the elderly and their carers.”
Bowel cancer screening
“At last we have some financial commitment from the state government for this national program screening the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia. “
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