Plea for aid as NSW flood crisis swamps doctors

Doctors and pharmacists in northern NSW are in some cases more than a million dollars out of pocket following last summer’s floods and are still operating out of temporary premises.

A pharmacy in South Lismore that was severely damaged in floods in early 2022.

Doctors and pharmacists in northern NSW are in some cases more than a million dollars out of pocket following last summer’s floods and are still operating out of temporary premises.

Medical peak bodies are calling on the federal government to provide an immediate $15m injection of funds to help health ser­vices recover, endorsing a pro­posal put forward by the NSW Rural Doctors Network.

They also want all regional and rural health services classified as essential services for the purposes of support and recovery in the event of a disaster, which would open up access to immediate financial support and resources to rebuild damaged or des­troy­ed health facilities and replace equipment.

The calls to prop up struggling medics in Lismore comes as the nation faces a looming doctor shortage crisis, particularly in the regions and the bush. The Royal Australian College of GPs has called a General Practice Crisis Summit in Canberra on October 5 to “tackle the most pressing ­issues affecting patient care”.

The summit follows months of reports of surgeries winding back access to bulk billing and declining numbers of junior doctors signing up to train as GPs. Leading doctors are now warning there will be “mass resignations” in the profession.

“General practice is at breaking point, and something needs to be done immediately to avoid Australia running out of GPs,” RACGP president Karen Price said. “Unless we are given more support, Australia will run out of doctors. It’s as simple as that.”

In Lismore, local medics estimate that about half the private medical workforce is no longer practising in the area. The town lost three major GP clinics and Lismore Base Hospital’s emergency department is overloaded.

With most given only $50,000 emergency relief grant funding, doctors and pharmacists have been struggling to repair destroy­ed premises and replace expensive medical equipment lost in the floods. Many were not insured for flood, given the risks in the area, and have had to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in commercial loans to rebuild.

Pharmacist Kyle Wood, owner of Southside Pharmacy which has two premises in Lismore destroyed in the floods, estimates he has had to spend between $1m and $1.5m to rebuild and restock the chemists.

“Everyone is just running on empty, stressed and fatigued,” Dr Wood said.

The business lost a lot of specialist equipment it used to supply to patients and the hospital, such as commercial breast pumps, electric patient lifters and rehabilitation equipment.

Dr Wood has received an extra $150,000 in relief from the NSW government but it is only a fraction of his costs. “The government was willing to give Norco $35m to keep them alive, I think they had 170 jobs there. We’re asking for half that. There’s far more people employed in health services in Lismore. We have more than 30 people employed in our two stores.”

Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson said he was not prepared for the devastation and the conditions health workers were dealing with when he toured the region last week.

“The personal toll still being borne by the community is shocking,” he said.

“No community health service provider should have to experience the funding uncertainty that healthcare businesses in the Lismore region have faced over the last 6½ months.

“Lismore is the blueprint for ensuring all health services are treated as essential services. It’s time to act now before parts of this great country become dystopian landscapes of desperate climate refugees with no access to health, housing and other basic human rights.”