Rural Doctor Shortage

Mr PETER DRAPER (Tamworth) [7.48 p.m.]: Country communities have been hard hit by a lack of medical professionals in recent years and in many towns it has been almost impossible for sick people to obtain a doctor's appointment. People commonly face waiting times of between two and four weeks. Gunnedah has experienced this medical shortage, and reports indicate that it will only worsen over the next couple of years. I inform the House of how the Gunnedah community is proactively seeking answers and putting forward solutions. On Tuesday night this week the community-owned organisation Gunnedah Rural Health Limited held a well-attended public meeting to outline its vision for a Gunnedah rural health centre, aimed at addressing medical shortfalls and improving health delivery across the Gunnedah region.

Gunnedah Rural Health Limited does not want to just talk about the problems; it is actively working to provide solutions. However, the organisation requires Federal and State financial support to make the dream a reality. The organisation has already undertaken scoping studies and now has engineering plans ready to go. It has done the groundwork and now seeks government assistance. The New South Wales Rural Doctors Network recently researched the vulnerability of New South Wales rural towns suffering a shortage of medical practitioners. The network believes that there are three significant factors that indicate a possibility that a town could lose its medical services, either permanently or for an indeterminate period.

These factors are: first, a solo general practitioner, or a general practitioner couple providing the only medical service; second, 50 per cent or more of the town's workforce are registrars; and, third, 30 per cent or more of the town's workforce is aged 55 years or more. Besides already meeting two of those three specific indicators, Gunnedah has other significant concerns. In a town of 10,000 residents, the number of fully qualified, vocationally registered doctors has dropped alarmingly to only three. Just a few short years ago it was considered that six doctors was the critical mass below which the town could not adequately deliver medical services. Currently Gunnedah survives because it has five general practitioner registrars, which is well in excess of usual numbers, thus allowing viable health service delivery.

General practitioner registrar numbers will change in the near future, with the expected amalgamation of the New England Training Services with a Sydney-based consortium, SIGPET. That will have significant ramifications for the number of registrars in Gunnedah. However, even with the high number of registrars, it is anticipated that doctor numbers will be below critical mass by 2009. Currently the three fully qualified, vocationally registered doctors are the only proceduralists in town for obstetrics, anaesthetics and surgery. The current registrars and potential new doctors for Gunnedah are unlikely to undertake a procedural practice. As such, procedural medicine in Gunnedah is under constant threat, as it relies upon three ageing doctors who also have to maintain the many other facets of running a rural practice.

Gunnedah is seeing an influx of new residents, including older people seeking a tree change, plus younger families seeking work in the expanding mining and support industries, all of whom will require enhanced medical provision in coming years. As a result the community must improve the workforce numbers, not only to meet the obvious needs but also to help retain the current doctors. The likelihood of this situation further deteriorating is high, and it would take just one of the current three doctors to die, retire or have a significant illness, for that to happen. However, the people of Gunnedah have a vision to assist in meeting their health needs into the future. They propose constructing an integrated rural health centre that would incorporate at least three distinct service provisions, which are integrally linked.

First is general practice with all local doctors available to train students from the new rural medical schools, including 60 per year from the Joint Medical Program at the University of New England. Second, the facility will provide for allied health services including podiatry, dietetics, physiotherapy, diabetic educators and psychologists. Other services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander care and mental health, are under consideration. Third, the facility would have dedicated teaching areas for medical students, registrars, practice nurse trainees and allied health students, all with linkages to appropriate universities. There is considerable evidence to show that students from rural areas are more likely to return to the country to practice medicine or other health sciences.

Early exposure to rural practice during training also increases the likelihood of students returning. An integrated rural health centre in Gunnedah would greatly assist in attracting future practitioners to the town. The concept takes into account the Federal and State governments' emphasis on integration of primary health care, plus the development of general practices in association with emergency departments.

The Gunnedah community has a very clear vision. Both the Federal and the State Government are reaping enormous benefits from the expanded resources industry in the local district, so it is time that some of the royalties and taxes from the Gunnedah Basin were reinvested into local infrastructure, such as the proposed integrated rural health centre for Gunnedah. This is a very beneficial project, one that will see enormous long-term positive ramifications for the community and one that the State Government should most certainly support.

Question—That private members' statements be noted—put and resolved in the affirmative.

Private members' statements noted.Private members' statements noted.