THE RURAL Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has given qualified support to 464 country communities including Mendooran and Gulargambone having immediate access to a pool of overseas doctors.
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RDAA chief executive officer Jenny Johnson has acknowledged the desperate need of many communities for GPs, but suggested the focus should be on "skills as well as numbers" and making sure Australian medical graduates are being trained as rural doctors to create a sustainable workforce.
The federal government has delivered on its promise to classify each of 220 rural and remote communities a District of Workforce Shortage (DWS), a title that recognises a "population's need for medical services has not been met".
They include Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Coolah, Baradine, Gulargambone and Mendooran.
Last week then federal Minister for Rural Health Fiona Nash said the DWS areas did not have to prove they had a shortage or wait months to replace doctors.
"Medical practices in these areas will be able to hire GPs who were trained overseas and who have passed an Australian equivalent exam," she said.
"Typically, for their first 10 years of practice in Australia, overseas-trained doctors are unable to access Medicare services unless they work where there is a shortage of doctors, which effectively means country areas."
Ms Nash said a further 244 communities had been granted DWS status under the "population to GP ratio".
They include Bathurst, the Blue Mountains, Parkes, Cowra, Cootamundra, Canowindra, Peak Hill, Eugowra and Trundle.
"In the past 12 months, we've injected $50 million into bigger incentives to support doctors to practise in rural and remote Australia and announced $238.4 million to teach more doctors in the bush," she said.
Ms Johnson said overseas doctors performed a "sterling service" in rural and remote communities.
"Many of them have become valued and integrated members of those communities but as a sustainable solution it's not working," she said.
"So we do also need to turn our focus towards some initiatives to make sure we are retraining our own Australian graduates to be rural doctors.
"It's being recognised and work is underway but we need to make sure that works continues."
Ms Johnson also put the spotlight on the skills of doctors needed in the bush.
"We need to be working towards making sure that we have the policies in place which incentivise doctors who have the right skills to go into these communities," she said.
