Wimmera GP supply may be under threat as fed gov changes classification

The federal government changed the Distribution Priority Area classification on Thursday, July 21.

The classification system identifies areas experiencing lower levels of GP services, compared with a benchmark of GP services.

Under the changes, towns with a population of more than 50,000, or within 20km of those towns, will automatically fall under the Designated Priority Area status - meaning the towns will have access to a larger pool of doctors, including international medical graduates.

The Rural Doctors of Australia Association raised concerns the classification change would result in much-needed medical professionals foregoing rural placements for work in larger regional cities and outer Melbourne suburbs.

"The new Labor government has now expanded DPAs to include all large regional centres as well as some outer metro areas," Rural Doctors of Australia Association president Dr Megan Belot said.

READ MORE:

"This will mean that many rural and remote towns will be abandoned by their doctors, who will move to more sociable, convenient and connected locations."

In Horsham, Lister House Medical Clinic chief executive Amanda Wilson said she would be watching the change closely to see its full impacts.

"It might not be as bad as it first appears, because sometimes these things change our area to be more significant," she said.

Ms Wilson however acknowledged the importance of designated priority areas for the Wimmera, which provided a large portion of the medical workforce.

Overseas trained doctors or foreign graduates of an accredited medical school must work in a priority area for at least 10 years to provide services covered by Medicare rebates.

Ms Wilson said overseas trained doctors, and the moratoriums which brought them to the region, were critical to staffing the Wimmera's GP offices.

"They are talking about changes to moratoriums of overseas medical practitioners. That will be absolutely detrimental to our area because most of the GPs we have are the exact people under the moratoriums," Ms Wilson said.

OTHER NEWS:

"It will absolutely break the current system they have got, which is only being held together by a shoestring. If they go ahead and change the major infrastructure we have already got, it will be detrimental to our area."

While the immediate impacts on Wimmera's health workforce were unclear, the Rural Doctors Association said it was already seeing the impacts of the change at rural clinics across the country.

"We have already received very early indicators of how this policy change will wreak havoc in the bush," Dr Belot said.

"We are already desperately short of rural doctors, and the DPA expansion will pull the rug out from under many rural medical practices."

Dr Belot said the association would push the federal government to increase incentives for regional doctors to address shortages.

"RDAA will be pushing for swift, urgent action to accelerate the rollout of the National Rural Generalist Pathway and recognition of Rural Generalism as a specialty, as well as urgent implementation industrial reforms proposed by RDAA to develop a system that supports, trains, encourages and incentivises doctors to work rurally," Dr Belot said.

"Unfortunately, even when fast-tracked, these initiatives will take time to build a sustainable rural medical workforce, and how this Government plans to address the immediate drain of doctors from the bush remains a mystery.

"RDAA has a meeting with Minister Butler in the coming weeks and we will be putting these questions and proposed solutions to him for his urgent consideration."

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Wimmera Mail-Times, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling your stories. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.