Report urges action to improve Territorian’s access to specialist healthcare

The federal government and the Territory government need to take action to improve people’s access to specialist healthcare a new report recommends.

The federal government and the Territory government need to take action to improve people’s access to specialist healthcare

The federal government and the Territory government need to take action to improve people’s access to specialist healthcare a new report recommends.

New Grattan Institute research found people living in the NT outback get fewer specialist appointments than the national average, counting both private and public, virtual and in- person appointments.

The report was co-authored by the Grattan Institutes’s Elizabeth Baldwin Senior Associate Health Program and Health Program Director, Peter Breadon.

The found that one of the big reasons for the lack of regional and rural specialists is that there hasn’t been enough opportunities for specialists to train in those areas.

The reports notes that specialists often do their final training in their 30s, which is around the time they might be settling down and putting down roots.

The report’s authors say if specialists train in a big city, that’s typically where they’ll stay for the rest of their career.

They say despite this, rural specialist training has languished and a third of final-year medical students say they intend to work outside the major cities, but just 14 per cent of specialist trainees actually do.

New Grattan Institute research found people living in the NT outback get fewer specialist appointments .

The report points out that the Northern Territory has no accredited training sites for facial trauma specialists, despite having a similar volume of cases to Victoria.

The specialist college requires that each training location have four trainees, which isn’t feasible in the Northern Territory.

It says to break the impasse, governments should work together to identify future healthcare needs across the country. Then, they should only fund training positions that align with those plans.

The report says the next step to improve people’s access to specialist care is more targeted investment in public clinics.

The report says the Northern Territory’s outback needs at least a 25 per cent increase in total specialist appointments.

But Darwin is also missing out on some specialties – for example, it’s in the bottom quarter of the country for access to psychiatry services.

SEE PAGE 14: Opinion piece

Originally published as Report urges action to improve Territorian’s access to specialist healthcare