The Bawrunga Medical Centre had planned to open its new facility at Talbragar Street this week but had to postpone it as one of its three doctors who was attending to patients in Gilgandra is on sick leave until the end of the month.

"We are desperate for doctors ... our problem is we don't have enough fully qualified GPs who can step into the job with the required VR [Vocational Registration] ... one of our doctors is on sick leave so we have to close Gilgandra until she can return," Sue Russell, Bawrunga clinical nurse manager told the Daily Liberal.

Aside from the Aboriginal Medical Service in Gilgandra, a town of about 3,200 people 45 minutes out of Dubbo, Bawrunga is among three other medical services in the town.

While Bawrunga's doctor working three days in the town is on sick leave, patients will have to wait in a queue for other doctors.

Bawrunga also has another doctor working at Gulargambone, a town with nearly 600 residents, traveling an hour and 15 minutes each way to see patients one day a week.

Ms Russell said the medical centre management has plans to double the number of doctors working full-time if there are enough qualified applicants and licensed by the Medical Board of Australia to practice as GPs as well as listed in the Vocational Register for Medicare billing purposes.

"We seem to get applicants trained overseas but not fully qualified to practice here because they need hours of supervision from qualified GPs," Ms Russell said.

"The issue is we need qualified doctors who can supervise doctors working towards their qualifications...we can't just take away qualified doctors to sit and supervise student doctors."

Ms Russell said Medicare bulk billing must also be reinforced covering all surgeries in remote towns because the majority of their patients do not have private health insurance coverage so they prefer the free Medicare scheme.

The NSW government has set out bold new measures to attract key health workers to local health facilities, and to retain the existing workforce in regions like Dubbo-Orana, Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders said.

To attract "hard to fill critical roles" needed in the bush, Mr Saunders said the state government is offering up to a $10,000 sign-on bonus including relocation, housing, transport and other incentives such as childcare fees, salary boost, and access to training and education.

A record $4.5 billion has been allocated for health under the 2022-2023 NSW government budget, which will be announced by the treasurer on Tuesday, June 21.

This budget will call for more than 10,000 health workers recruited to fill chronic staff shortages in rural health services and $883 million will be spent on training and retaining healthcare staff mainly doctors, medical interns, nursing practitioners, midwives, allied health professionals and Aboriginal nursing interns.

The regional health care reforms are seen as the state government's response to a scathing report released last May by an NSW parliamentary inquiry revealing a crisis in frontline health services in rural and remote towns.

The Australian Medical Association issued a statement following the release of the inquiry's findings urging sweeping changes in rural hospital funding, changing the terms and conditions for GP registration and medical specialist training to address the decline of doctors and services in rural towns.

NSW AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said "reforming primary care is necessary and initiatives for GP registrars with comparable remuneration and entitlements to hospital-based colleagues would make general practice a more attractive option to doctors in training".

Dubbo's School of Rural Health has been funded with $95 million by the federal government through the Murray Darling Medical Schools Network and expanded to offer a Sydney University degree in medicine starting last year when the first 24 student doctors have enrolled and currently training and residing in the city.

Mr Saunders said the regional health package targeting the recruitment of key health staff will address under-resourcing in regional health facilities, including a decline in nurses, midwives, paramedics, pathologists, scientific staff, pharmacists, allied health professionals, as well as support and ancillary staff.

"We know the Dubbo electorate is the best place to live, work and play, and this package will encourage graduate nurses, doctors, and other clinical staff to not only take up a job in our region but set up their lives here," Mr Saunders said.

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More measures are also being funded to ensure there is "a pipeline of future nurses, doctors and other clinical staff who are based in the bush and have the skills, confidence and expertise needed to work in regional health care facilities," Mr Saunders said.

Among the measures are up to 6.5 per cent pay increases to be effected over two years for more than 200,000 public sector staff, many of which are health department and agencies staff.

Mr Saunders said all staff covered under the public sector award will also get an extra 0.5 per cent increase on top of the total 6.5 per cent wage hikes if they "contribute to workplace reforms that deliver better outcomes for the public."

"To deliver the best public services, we need to adapt to new technology and ways of working...In this wages policy, a further 0.5 percent is on offer...a win for workers and the community," Mr Saunders said.

The new wage policy will apply to industrial agreements from July 1 this year. A one-off payment of $3,000 has been approved in the 2022-2023 budget for frontline health staff who worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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