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Rural workforce rescue package essential
2 May 2008
AMA Victoria has renewed its calls for the State Government to implement a rural workforce rescue package in next week’s budget to address workforce problems outlined in the Federal Health Minister’s rural health audit.
“Regional Victoria is experiencing considerable rates of growth and medical workforce shortages are a huge barrier in providing adequate health services,” said AMA Victoria President Dr Doug Travis.
“We are failing to attract new doctors to rural and regional Victoria and are struggling to retain the current workforce.
“We know what the problems are,” said Dr Travis, “and now is the time to act.”
AMA Victoria recommends a $116.5m rural workforce rescue package to include:
- a Centre for International Medical Graduate Support to improve international medical graduates’ contribution to rural health care ($12 million over four years, partially offset by $6.2 million saved from abolishing the existing IMG assessment funding).
- Payments for general practitioners for out of hours telephone consultations with hospitals to improve access to information and care ($2.7 million over four years).
- Rural allowances for hospital medical staff to aid recruitment and retention, and to ensure access to services ($54 million over four years).
- Rural general practice and specialist locum support service to provide longer-term support for country medical practitioners and greater access for rural communities ($16 million over four years).
- Rural relocation allowances for general practitioners and specialists, including recognising long service leave entitlements from other states, to aid recruitment ($6 million over four years)
- Specialist bridging finance to aid transitions from retiring doctors to new doctors ($10 million over four years)
- Support for practice amalgamation for rural practices to improve access to care ($1.2 million over three years)
- Information technology support grants to assist community based GPs and specialists to connect to hospital IT systems ($6.5 million over four years)
- Increased Continuing Medical Education (CME) allowances for doctors in training in rural areas to account for the additional costs on CME and improve the quality of services ($3.2 million over four years)
- Retention allowances for hospital doctors who have spent at least seven years in regional Victoria to recognise service and improve access to care ($9 million over four years)
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