MEDIA RELEASE

Saturday 17 June 2006

Doctors Welcome Nationals’ Proposal
on Rural Hospital Funding

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has welcomed a proposal by the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of The Nationals, Mark Vaile MP, that the Australian Government’s healthcare funding agreements with the states should include funding specifically for public hospitals in rural and regional areas.

“This is a key measure for which RDAA has been leading the call for many years” RDAA President, Dr Ross Maxwell, said.

“It was also a central element of the Good Health to Rural Communities ten point plan that RDAA, together with the National Farmers’ Federation, Country Women’s Association of Australia, Australian Local Government Association and Health Consumers of Rural and Remote Australia, developed in 2004.

“It is very pleasing to see the National Party coming right behind the idea of quarantining funding for rural and regional hospitals in the forthcoming Australian Health Care Agreements.

“It is critical that this occurs if Australia’s rural and regional hospitals, and their maternity and other procedural services, are to be saved from closure or downgrading and instead maintained and expanded.

“We urge the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott MP, and his Coalition colleagues to support the Nationals’ proposal and make it a reality.

“The absence of dedicated funding for rural and regional hospitals in the Australian Health Care Agreements is a key contributor to the poor co-ordination between the federal and state governments in relation to rural healthcare delivery.

“For example, while the Federal Government has been introducing very useful support measures to maintain the procedural workforce in rural areas, state governments have been closing the hospital facilities in which these proceduralists can work—this is illustrated clearly by the fact that 130 small rural maternity units across Australia have been closed in the past 10 years alone.

“Closing and downgrading small rural hospitals places further pressure on larger regional hospitals, and discourages doctors from moving to rural areas. It also diminishes the local capacity to handle emergencies, which can have a critical impact on the ability to cope with serious road and farming accidents.

“Small rural hospitals are often also the only places where nursing and allied health services are available in a rural community and where you receive chronic care treatment such as for a diabetic foot ulcer or rehabilitation following a stroke.

“In short, small rural hospitals provide an essential service to rural communities. It is equally essential that the other major parties, both at the federal and state levels, now follow the Nationals’ lead and commit to quarantining specific funding in the Australian Health Care Agreements to help save them.”

RDAA President, Dr Ross Maxwell, is available for interview on tel: 0418 727 255.

RDAA Vice President, Dr Peter Rischbieth, is also available for interview on tel: 0408 813 143.

Media contact: Patrick Daley on tel: 0408 004 890.