‘Devastating changes’: Health crisis in rural, remote Qld with chronic shortage of GPs

Health care in rural and remote Queensland – which makes up 70 per cent of the state – is having the rug pulled out from it by governments trying to solve GP shortages in the cities, says the peak doctors’ body.

All levels of government must declare a crisis in rural general practice as the sector continues to grapple with a chronic shortage of doctors.

This is according to the state’s peak advocacy body for rural and remote doctors that is pleading with governments to act immediately “for the sake of all country Queenslanders”.

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,” Dr Masel 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.”

Rural Doctors Association of Queensland president Matt Masel.

Queensland doctors this year revealed they were experiencing their “worst stress” in three decades in the wake of the pandemic that had forced a halt in overseas-trained doctors.

And it was recently revealed that Queensland taxpayers were funding pay packages worth $1m a year to fly-in locum doctors to help prop up the strained health system.

“We need all levels of government to firstly acknowledge that we are indeed in a rural general practice crisis, and then to listen to, and work with, the medical community to find well-informed, practical solutions that will work,” Dr Masel said.

“A general practitioner’s core business in the bush is keeping people healthy.

“When rural and remote Queenslanders don’t have access to GP care, they can’t avoid getting sicker and inevitably are forced to fall back on their last resort, which is going to hospital.

“The best primary care is invisible, it’s measured in the unkept statistics of those who don’t have to go to the emergency department because their GP has ensured early-intervention measures and enacted an appropriate treatment plan.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath called on the previous federal government to reverse its decision to freeze the indexation of the Medicare rebate in a bid to incentivise people to move regional.

And Health Workforce Queensland chair Ross Maxwell has previously called for the “anti-innovative” Medicare funding model to be reformed and for nurses to be allowed to do more.

The new Labor federal government has convened a Strengthening Medicare Taskforce that will provide advice around primary care ahead of the October budget.

Originally published as ‘Devastating changes’: Health crisis in rural, remote Qld with chronic shortage of GPs