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Country Victoria needs medical workforce rescue plan
08 February 2010.
Rural Victoria could lose one third of its medical workforce unless the Victorian Government funds a rural medical workforce rescue package in the May budget, says AMA Victoria.
A recent AMA Victoria survey found that 37 per cent of GPs who provided services to rural hospitals would not be practising medicine in rural Victoria beyond five years.
"The prospect of losing more than one third of Victoria’s rural GPs over the next five years is very concerning," said AMA Victoria President Dr Harry Hemley. "We knew we would lose a substantial number of doctors to retirement over the next few years but many more doctors are ready to abandon rural practise because they are burnt out.
"Rural doctors are overwhelmed by pressures beyond running their own general practice clinics. They’re seeing patients in the local hospital, being woken up in the night to answer phone calls, and accepting on-call arrangements that prevent them from taking holidays or even spending time with their families."
AMA Victoria has put a $94.6 million, four year proposal to the Victorian Government to assist rural Victoria in retaining its local doctors and attracting more medical practitioners to areas in need.
"We need a workforce rescue package to reward these doctors for the valuable work they do, and to attract more doctors to rural practise. We can’t keep ignoring this problem."
Dr Hemley said a range of measures was needed to address the doctor shortage and the rescue package focused on reducing some of the barriers that prevented doctors from working or staying in rural areas.
"We need to improve working conditions for general practitioners providing hospital services. Many of these doctors are burdened with excessive workloads, demanding on-call rosters, endless after-hours phone calls and little professional support," he said.
"The rescue package recommends incentives for doctors to relocate to rural areas and proposes rewards for rural doctors’ long-term contribution to their communities. It also recommends payments for after-hours or overnight phone consultations – services which are not currently remunerated.
"The Victorian Government needs to acknowledge what a great job our rural doctors do in caring for local communities, and ensure they have sustainable workloads, and are well-supported."
Dr Hemley said country Victoria missed out in the 2009-10 State Budget and healthcare continued to suffer. "The disparity between rural and metropolitan services is growing because there aren’t enough doctors in rural and regional Victoria."
"The Victorian Government needs to act now to improve access to quality health care for country Victorians."
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