Elida Faith letter to give Cairns Distribution Priority Area status

Calls to re-evaluate a medical classification system that hinders the Far North’s GP recruiting ability are growing louder, with the federal government now in receipt of multiple applications.

CALLS to re-evaluate a medical classification system that hinders the Far North’s GP recruiting ability are growing louder with another doctor and a political candidate backing the proposition.

Labor candidate for Leichhardt Elida Faith has launched a petition and written to the federal regional health minister David Gillespie, calling on the Morrison government to grant Distribution Priority Area (DPA) status for the Cairns region.

The DPA system identifies areas where people don’t have enough access to doctors based on the needs of the community.

A region with DPA status can access a broader recruitment pool, for example international medical graduates.

“Cairns currently does not have a DPA classification, so what that means is, we are severely restricted when it comes to GP recruitment,” Ms Faith said.

“Wait times have exploded, practices have closed their books and GPs are overworked.

“There is no point having a Medicare card if you can’t use it. We need the Morrison government to take this seriously, we have a GP crisis, we need to act now.”

FNQH Skin Cancer Centre director Dr Vin Rajeswaran has felt the effects of the shortage first hand, forced to shut down his Innisfail clinic in March after being unable to recruit new doctors.

“We are classified the same as a Sydney CBD and Brisbane CBD clinic which is unfair in a sense that we are far away from everything and getting doctors to move (here) and incentivise them, it just becomes a problem,” he said.

Doctor Vin Rajeswaran had to shut down his FNQH- Innisfail Medical and Skin Cancer Centre when he couldn’t find two new GPs before April. Picture: Arun Singh Mann

“We are very short of doctors. The next available appointment we have is mid-February next year.

“So the situation is very dire because if you’re waiting three months for an appointment, then that’s three months of complications contributing towards your medical condition.

He said he supported a reclassification of Cairns’ DPA status as a short-term solution, but insisted greater incentives needed to be introduced.

“The incentives could be a variety of things, so when a doctor comes to Australia, that’s not trained in Australia, they’re subject to a moratorium which can be five to 10 years.

“I am saying make rural and regional areas more appealing by reducing the moratorium in those areas.

“In terms of Medicare, rebates have been frozen for I think 15 years.

“But the rent goes up 3 per cent every year, superannuation has gone up, staff wages have gone up but Medicare has stayed the same which means doctors are having to see more patients per hour. I know some practices they see seven or eight patients per hour, which means you get about seven minutes with the doctor.”

Federal Regional Health Minister Dr David Gillespie.

In September regional health minister Dr Gillespie launched a new exceptional circumstance review for the DPA classification which “enables practices in Cairns to present information that was not considered in the July 2021 DPA assessment.”

“This week with encouragement from Mr Entsch, three Cairns clinics have submitted an application to the Australian Department of Health for the review to occur. I am expecting my department to provide me with a recommendation in early 2022 after reviewing the applications. If successful, all clinics in the Cairns GP catchment will have access to a larger pool of overseas trained doctors to recruit from,” he said.

Originally published as Elida Faith letter to give Cairns Distribution Priority Area status