Media releases 2011

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has welcomed the appointment of Tanya Plibersek MP as the new Federal Health Minister, and appealed to her to “urgently address” critical issues that are impacting on the future delivery of rural health services across Australia.

“RDAA had some involvement with Ms Plibersek when she was Federal Minister for the Status of Women and as the Minister for Human Services” RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, said.

“In those portfolios, we appreciated her willingness to listen to our views.

“We look forward to working with her now as Federal Health Minister, particularly in resolving some major issues that threaten the future sustainability of rural healthcare in this country."

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) says rural doctors are becoming increasingly concerned that looming changes to funding arrangements for after-hours medical services could impact on their ability to continue providing after-hours care to their local communities.

From July 2013, three federal Practice Incentive Payments (PIPs) that have supported rural practices to provide after-hours care will be discontinued, with the funding transferred to Medicare Locals. This will leave Medicare Locals with the responsibility for planning after-hours services, and the power to determine whether existing arrangements will continue to be supported.

RDAA is concerned that this may lead to a reduction in after-hours funding support for small rural practices or a centralisation of services to larger regional centres, forcing rural patients to travel long distances to access after-hours care.

ACRRM-RDAA Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award 2011
A doctor who has provided exceptional medical service to his rural community for more than three decades has received the ACRRM-RDAA Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award for 2011.
Dr Les Woollard, who has practised in the rural NSW town of Moree for the past 31 years, also received the award for his outstanding advocacy in the area of rural medicine and rural health.

THE Rural Doctors Association of Queensland has welcomed yesterday’s announcement by the LNP to double travel and accommodation subsidies for rural and regional Queenslanders.

RDAQ President, Dr Ewen McPhee, has responded to the LNP’s commitment to double the travel subsidy from 15 cents per km to 30 cents per km, and double the accommodation subsidy from $30 to $60 per person for patients forced to travel for treatment and medical care.

Dr McPhee, who is based in Emerald, said the increase was warranted given that rural patients have poorer access to specialist care frequently leading to poorer health outcomes.

Medical students from country NSW, who are commencing the second year of their degree in 2012, are being encouraged to apply for 'The Land' and Rural Doctors Association of NSW’s Rural Medical Scholarships.

This is the second year that the scholarships are being offered. The two scholarships, each of$7500, aim to support medical students from country NSW to undertake their studies, given those who are raised in the bush are the most likely to return to the bush to practise after graduation.

The Rural Doctors Association of South Australia (RDASA) has welcomed the release of an SA Government commissioned report that supports the establishment of a rural generalist training pathway in SA.

Country Health SA commissioned the Rural Doctors Workforce Agency (RDWA) to manage the consultation and development process around the 'Road to Rural General Practice' report.

It followed concerns expressed by RDASA and others that rural SA is facing a looming workforce crisis, with many of the state’s existing rural doctors reaching retirement but not being replaced by the next generation of rural generalist doctors trained in the advanced medical skills needed in country areas.

A medico-political session at the recent national Rural Medicine Australia conference in Alice Springs has seen rural and remote doctors from across Australia again showing their strong concerns over the troubled Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system.

When President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), Dr Paul Mara, asked the 150 rural doctors at the session to raise their hand if they thought the ASGC-RA had been a positive development for their community, the room was silent and there was not a single hand to be seen.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Health, Warren Snowdon, and Federal Shadow Health Minister, Peter Dutton, were at the session and witnessed the strong message from the floor that the ASGC-RA has been bad news for many rural and remote towns.

Victorian registrar, Dr Adele van der Merwe, has been awarded Westpac RDAA-ACRRM Rural Registrar of the Year, in recognition of her dedication, hard work and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty during her year-long tenure in the town of Charlton.

Dr van der Merwe was presented the award during a gala dinner at Rural Medicine Australia 2011, the national conference of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), held in Alice Springs on Saturday night.

Country doctors from across Australia will converge on Alice Springs this Thursday to Sunday for a major national conference, Rural Medicine Australia 2011 (RMA 2011).

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Rural Generalism – the future of sustainable medical services’, and the delegates will be focused on plotting a course to promote the delivery of more doctors and other health professionals to the bush, and better access to quality health care for rural and remote Australians.

More than 300 senior doctors, registrars, junior doctors, medical students and allied health professionals will be in Alice Springs for Rural Medicine Australia 2011 (RMA 2011), Australia’s biggest rural doctor conference.
RMA 2011 will take the latest in rural and remote medical skills, knowledge, and issues to the heart of the country where attendees will be discussing future directions for rural healthcare in Australia.

There is resounding approval from rural doctors around Australia for the Senate Inquiry, announced today, into the factors affecting health services in the bush – in particular the Rural Relocation Incentive Grant scheme.
Dr Paul Mara, President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) thanked Senator Fiona Nash (Nationals Senator for NSW) and Dr Andrew Laming (Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) for their persistence in calling for this inquiry.

The serious anomalies in the ASGC-RA classification system are being felt across the country. Many rural doctors are voicing their concerns, saying it is now much harder to attract much-needed doctors to their small rural towns. Here are some more examples of the negative impacts that the ASGC-RA is having across rural Australia:

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has warned that rural practices will need adequate support to ensure the success of a Patient Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) system in the bush.

RDAA was responding to comments made this week by the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, that at this stage no special rebate will be paid to doctors to cover their time in creating health summaries for PCEHRs.

RDAA wrote to the Minister earlier this month advising that, without such a rebate, many rural practices will find it difficult to meet the challenges associated with implementing a PCEHR system.

More examples of country towns disadvantaged by anomalous boundaries of the new system determining the incentives paid to rural doctors are emerging every day.
Medical practices in some rural towns are mere metres from a boundary that would mean they could offer greater incentives to attract and retain doctors than larger regional centres that are now classified the same.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) said the report signalling an end to the rural doctor drought raises more questions than it answers.

RDAA has warned that substantial work is needed to ensure that the predictive assumptions on which the review of rural medical workforce initiatives report is based are accurate.

Apparently so…at least according to the Federal Government.

Under its Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system, doctors working in a major coastal city like Townsville and Cairns now receive the same level of relocation and retention payments as those working in Hay and numerous other small towns in outback NSW, because they are now all classified as being in an ‘Outer Regional’ (RA3) location.

What’s worse, small towns in NSW—like Cowra, Deniliquin, Gundagai, Cootamundra and many others—are now classified as being ‘Inner Regional’ (RA2), or less remote than Townsville and Cairns, meaning that doctors receive lower relocation and retention payments to work in these towns than they do to work in Townsville and Cairns!

These small NSW towns are now also competing for doctors with Hobart and other large regional cities (as these cities are also classified as ‘Inner Regional’ or RA2 locations), despite the fact that the larger centres can offer additional supports and services for doctors and their families.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has launched a national ‘Stop the Rot!’ virtual roadshow to highlight mounting evidence that the new Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system is making it significantly more difficult for small rural towns to attract doctors.

Over coming weeks, the online roadshow will feature rural towns across Australiathat are being significantly disadvantaged by the ASGC-RA.

RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, also intends to take the roadshow literally ‘on the road’ in the coming months, to visit many affected towns across Australia.

RDAA continues to call for an immediate and independent review of the system.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has again called for the immediate release of a technical review into the Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system, saying the AGSC-RA is making it significantly harder to attract much-needed doctors to the bush.

RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, said he cannot believe it has taken longer to implement and still not release an internal review of the ASGC-RA than it has to develop, finalise and reach consensus on the new carbon tax.

The technical review of the ASGC-RA is being undertaken by the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GISCA)—the organisation that developed ASGC-RA in the first place.

The newly elected President of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) was ideally placed to advocate for more health services closer to home for country patients, according to Dr Dan Halliday, immediate past president of RDAQ.

“We’re all honoured that Dr Ewen McPhee of Emerald offered his candidacy for the RDAQ Presidency” Dr Halliday said. “Ewen has been a passionate campaigner for procedural services in his home town of Emerald and for rural Queenslanders generally.”

Over 23% of SA’s rural doctors expect to leave general practice within the next 5 years, while 23% also report that patients are waiting more than 3 weeks to see their usual doctor, a survey by the Rural Doctors Association of South Australia (RDASA) has found.

Australia’s peak general practitioner coalition, United General Practice Australia (UGPA), today vowed to intensify its campaign to convince the Government to restore the Medicare patient rebates for GP mental health services that were drastically cut in the May Budget.

At a meeting last night at Parliament House involving UGPA leaders, Mental Health Minister Mark Butler and senior advisers from Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s office, Minister Butler said there was no room for change or negotiation around the Government’s mental health package.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) is urging the Federal Government to undertake an immediate and independent review of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system, warning that doctors are now leaving smaller rural towns affected by the system’s anomalies for larger centres.

RDAA’s call follows a recent Senate Estimates hearing at which the Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, Jane Halton, downplayed concerns with the system and indicated it would not be reviewed for at least 18 months to two years after its commencement last July.

The ASGC-RA is used to determine the extent of relocation and retention incentives that a doctor receives, based on the location in which they are practising. It has placed many smaller rural towns in the same classification category as larger regional centres and even Hobart, meaning doctors now receive the same incentive payments whether they practise in the smaller towns or larger centres. In other cases, smaller towns are now just separated from larger centres by one classification level where previously there was a separation of two or three levels.

Doctors affected by the recent floods will have a chance to debrief with colleagues, President of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland, Dr Dan Halliday announced today.

“RDAQ’s 22nd annual conference is in Cairns this weekend and while it’s always a good opportunity for our members to compare notes, there’s a special reason this year,” he said.

Indigenous health would be a major focus of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland, RDAQ President Dr Dan Halliday announced today.

United General Practice Australia – the coalition of the peak groups representing Australia’s general practitioners – has issued a strong united statement calling on the government to expand the Better Access program to meet the demand for mental healthcare in the community rather than reducing Medicare patient rebates for vital mental health services.

RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, will be in Canberra for tonight’s federal budget and will be available for media interviews today and tomorrow.

After attending the health budget lock-up this afternoon/evening, he will provide comments to media at the Press Gallery at Parliament House. He will also be available for telephone interviews.

On Wednesday, Dr Mara and RDAA CEO, Jenny Johnson, will also be available for interviews from Canberra, both in person and over the phone. Dr Mara will also hold a media doorstop at the Senate Entrance, Parliament House, at 10:30am AEST on Wednesday.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has applauded the decision by the Victorian Government to fund a dedicated training pathway for rural doctors in its first budget.

The Victorian Health Minister has confirmed that from $2.4 million over four years will be provided to fund the program which is aimed at increasing the number of doctors with advanced skills training in rural areas.

Victoria’s decision follows the success of Queensland’s Rural Generalist Pathway that is attracting an increasing number of medical students into dedicated rural-orientated training.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has welcomed an announcement by the Federal Government that it will provide $65 million to establish an integrated regional cancer centre for the Albury-Wodonga region.

The new cancer centre will join 22 other regional cancer centre projects around Australia.

“The Government’s commitment to fund this next cancer centre is very welcome news for those living in and around Albury-Wodonga” RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, said.

President of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland, Dr Dan Halliday, today called for open-ness and due process as Queensland Health seeks to establish bulk-billed services in some country hospitals.

“There are towns where Queensland Health seems keen to set up bulk-billing clinics in their hospitals” Dr Halliday said. “Some of our members feel threatened by that and we want some answers as to what’s going on.”

RDAA has welcomed the Federal Government’s rollout of additional doctor training places in country locations, saying the extra places could help alleviate the critical shortage of doctors in rural towns provided improved supports and incentives are introduced to entice doctors to remain in the bush on completion of their training.

Over the past few weeks, Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has announced the rollout of 331 additional training places across Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, in both urban and rural settings.

The Rural Doctors Association of NSW (RDA NSW) says NSW Health must urgently reverse an “appalling decision” that will see medical students from NSW, who are studying medicine at the Australian National University in Canberra, unable to secure internship positions at rural NSW hospitals.

Guaranteed intern places under the Rural Preferential Recruitment (RPR) Scheme have now been restricted only to medical graduates from NSW universities. Previously students from interstate universities who had completed their HSC in NSW were also guaranteed an internship in rural NSW hospitals. The decision means that NSW-origin medical students who are studying at the ANU will not have guaranteed offers of internships in rural NSW.

The Rural Doctors Association of NSW (RDA NSW) has welcomed pre-election commitments by the NSW Coalition to improve access to healthcare in country NSW, saying the Coalition has “ticked various boxes” in RDA NSW’s election wishlist, Proposals for rural health for the Parliamentary term 2011 to 2015.

RDA NSW is now urging NSW Labor to follow suit and commit to several key initiatives required to get the rural health system in NSW off life-support.

I read with interest your article on rural training terms for registrars, and GPRA’s concerns that registrars need better support while on placement in the bush.

The research quoted was based on only 15 participants from one region in NSW, so to extrapolate too much from it would be dangerous.

RDAA has warned that after-hours services are under severe threat in many rural areas and that funding for Medicare Locals to address this issue may not solve the problem.

RDAA President, Dr Paul Mara, said that while he welcomed recognition in the current health reform agenda of the important role of doctors in meeting substantial patient health load in the community, significant numbers of rural doctors were considering their future participation in after-hours services in light of the current proposals.

The Rural Doctors Association of NSW (RDANSW) is urging NSW Labor to match a commitment by the NSW Coalition to retain existing health services at Parkes and Forbes hospitals.

The NSW Coalition this week announced a $25 million injection to the Forbes Hospital upgrade and refurbishment project and $42.5 million for a new Parkes Hospital.

The commitment follows RDANSW concerns that an amalgamation of hospital services between Parkes and Forbes—as proposed by the Western NSW Local Health Network (LHN)—will lead to an unacceptable decrease in health services in the Lachlan Valley.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has reserved judgment on the modified national health plan until we see the fine detail.

RDAA welcomes a shared pool of funding and hopes this will lead to greater co-ordination of planning and service delivery, matching resources to local need.

But at the very top of the list for government action must be the critical need to address the shortage of doctors and other health professionals that is impacting so badly on access to healthcare in rural and remote communities.

Part of the pooled funding must be allocated to train, attract and retain doctors, nurses and other health professionals in country Australia, to ensure a sustainable future for healthcare in the bush.

Key Rural Health Organisations are banding together to help their flood affected colleagues get back up and running after many lost their entire surgeries to the floods.

Dr Paul Mara, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) said that getting medical services running as quickly as possible should be a key priority for these communities.