Qld health: Plan to recall retired doctors to alleviate critical shortage

The state’s peak medical body is lobbying the Queensland government to allow retired doctors to return to work due to unprecedented workforce pressures.

The state’s peak medical body is lobbying the Queensland government to allow retired doctors to return to work due to unprecedented workforce pressures.

Just as judges can return to the bench during a royal commission, the Australian Medical Association Queensland says in the current health crisis senior doctors need to be called up to help desperate communities.

The AMAQ has developed a policy that is before the government to create a step-down category of medical registration, allowing retired doctors to work in a limited scope as well as volunteer in emergencies.

The inaugural Senior Active Doctors Conference is running this weekend at Redcliffe, bringing together experts and leaders in the medical profession to discuss how senior doctors can help.

Australian Senior Active Doctors Association president and AMAQ board director Associate Professor Geoffrey Hawson said the conference was the first of its kind in Australia, and was part of a global trend in harnessing the expertise of senior and retired doctors to help their communities in during crises.

AMAQ president Maria Boulton said the drive for senior doctors to step up was crucial to ease the medical shortages.

AMAQ president Maria Boulton

“As doctors, our priority is always to put patient safety at the heart of our decisions and we think there is a way to create a safe working environment for senior doctors to help deliver good patient outcomes,” she said.

Meanwhile the state’s peak advocacy body for rural and remote doctors says that all levels of government must declare a crisis in rural general practice as the sector continues to grapple with the chronic shortage of doctors.

Rural Doctors Association of Queensland president Matt Masel claimed the commonwealth’s recent expansion of the distribution priority area system was an ill-considered decision that was escalating the issue.

Under the system, international medical graduates can acquire a Medicare provider number if they work in rural areas.

However the expansion means overseas doctors can now live in regional areas as well.

“Seventy per cent of Queensland is rural or remote – this is a statewide issue and trying to solve GP shortages in the cities by pulling the rug out from rural communities is not the answer,” he said.

“Rural people highly value the vital work, commitment and care our overseas-trained doctors provide and we certainly support them to have rewarding career paths and lifestyle choices.

“What we can’t support is the federal government bringing about devastating changes to a system rural health care has been hinged upon, without offering rural people a viable and immediate alternative.”