Doctor appeal

Aplea to the Federal Government to explore new strategies to encourage high-quality doctors to rural and regional areas including the Wimmera was the subject of a meeting in Canberra yesterday.

Regional medical-services advocate Amanda Wilson of Horsham outlined concerns and a need for greater government support in a meeting with Deputy Health Minister Dr David Gillespie.

Mrs Wilson, who with husband Dr David Wilson is a part owner of Horsham’s Lister House Clinic and is also the clinic’s nurse manager and triage nurse, then attended a forum and dinner organised by Member for Mallee Andrew Broad.

Mrs Wilson said she had made the effort to pay for the trip to Canberra to get her point across about the struggle regional medical clinics had in not only attracting, but keeping, high-quality doctors.

“I’m in Canberra as pretty much a lay-person. But being married to a rural GP for 20 years and as a former representative for a pharmaceutical company visiting every rural surgery in western Victoria, I have pretty much lived it,” she said.

“We need to look at developing a different way to get high-quality doctors to commit to establishing themselves in the regions.

“The way the whole system is set up is not promoting that enough.

“I’m raising the issue from a community perspective because it directly affects communities and extends well beyond the simple provision of medical services.

“I’m asking the Federal Government to reassess how it is currently structuring the system to ensure regional areas have adequate and appropriate doctor services.

“The concern is that there are not enough incentives and open doors to encourage the doctors to not only come to the regions, but to stay.”

Mrs Wilson’s trip to Canberra comes in the wake of six doctors leaving Lister House in Horsham over a six-week period in what she described as a ‘random timing cluster’ which had in turn applied pressure to medical services across Horsham district.

The clinic previously had 13 doctors, who in normal circumstances might see as a group an average of 350 patients a day.

She said the clinic was confronted with a similar circumstance about eight years ago.

“We’re constantly recruiting and working hard to replace doctors and have plenty of nurses to work with the doctors and we want reassure patients with serious concerns that they will still get looked after with a high level of care and professionalism,” Mrs Wilson said.

“But this is an ongoing issue across rural and regional Australia and as communities we must embrace medical professionals – remembering that doctors who come into the region are often from diverse backgrounds and are people like everyone else – but also need government help to make it work.

“At the end of the day the government needs to ensure it can provide the right environment where city doctors feel comfortable in moving out into the country.

“There are mechanisms the government could develop or adopt to open the door for more regional doctors and that’s what I talked to the minister about.”

Mrs Wilson said the knock-on effect of a doctor shortage in private clinics led to pressure on hospital emergency departments, which was far from appropriate and placed considerable strain on the system.

She added Mr Broad and Victorian Member for Lowan Emma Kealy had been highly supportive in her push to be heard.

“Andrew Broad has genuinely opened the door for me to do that and Emma Kealy is working at a state level. When I get back I will be meeting with her to discuss it further,” she said.