THE Australian Medical Association (AMA) NSW has called on the government to do more to attract doctors to the rural and regional areas and to keep them there.
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AMA NSW president Dr Saxon Smith used a visit to Dubbo to announce the first of the organisation's priorities ahead of next month's state election.
Specifically, the AMA NSW wants recurrent funding of $30 million a year for regional local health districts to recruit 60 new registrars and 60 new specialist positions across regional NSW over the next four years. "Across Australia we have a shortage of doctors on the whole and this is most keenly felt in rural and regional Australia," Dr Smith said.
"Forty per cent of the NSW population lives outside Sydney. Health outcomes in these areas are poorer because it's harder for them to get to specialist care, and even to get a family doctor sometimes.
"We need to invest in specialist and training positions so we can train the doctors so they're more likely to stay in these areas.
"We welcome the investment in the development of Dubbo Hospital, but we then have to go further to make sure we have appropriate staff to fill these hospitals to provide quality care locally. It's much better for the people who live in regional Australia to have quality care delivered in their areas so they don't have to travel all the way to Sydney." A key factor in attracting and retaining junior and senior doctors was having secure, funded positions, according to Dr Smith.
Dr Smith said trainees also needed appropriate supervision and their supervisors needed workloads that allowed them to be able to supervise, while the organisation encouraged the use of rural clinical school models that allowed country doctors to link into major academic schools.
The regional and rural workforce strategy also needed to make sure there was adequate staffing and skills to allow a mix of generalist and specialised services, Dr Smith said.
Dubbo Director of Medical Services Dr Randall Greenberg said while there were some unfilled positions in junior, mid-level and consultant areas at the hospital, the AMA NSW's proposal was "not necessarily about plugging a gap we have now, rather, a long-term issue".
"If you can put in place more registrar training in regional centres, you end up attracting doctors who may not otherwise have come to a place like Dubbo," he said.
Dr Greenberg acknowledged some medical students simply did not want to leave Sydney, but exposure to the area through the Dubbo School of Rural Health was a wonderful way for them to get a lot of things they might not be able to elsewhere. "Some become interns and stay a few years, and we're hoping we get a few registrars to stay in the country, that will improve access and equity to care, we'll have a broader range of specialties and treat more people in regional centres," he said.