Locums being offered up to $2600 a day to work in struggling country SA hospitals

SA Health is offering GP locums huge daily payments to plug gaps in a long list of country hospital emergency departments.

Locums are being offered up to $2600 a shift to work in country hospitals as SA Health struggles to staff emergency departments in rural and regional centres.

Shortages at 16 hospitals have resulted in advertisements placed for clinicians with emergency qualifications to work various shifts from now until the end of the year – in some cases ASAP – with daily payments ranging from $2000 to $2600.

Fifteen of the jobs, such as $2500-a-day at Ceduna Hospital, are for GPs in emergency, while the $2600 offer is for an ED senior medical officer at Mt Gambier.

The Riverland General Hospital at Berri.

Berri Hospital is offering $1600 a day for a GP from November 1 to December 5.

Hospitals seeking GPs for emergency shifts from now until the end of the year include Ceduna, Port Augusta, Peterborough, Wallaroo, Port Lincoln, Yorketown, Naracoorte, Mid Eyre, Quorn, Booleroo, Wudinna, Maitland, Whyalla, Balaclava and Bordertown.

Dr Gerard Considine, the Rural Doctors Association of Australia’s doctor of the year in 2020 and committee member of the state association, said it is a “worsening symptom of the underlying disease affecting rural hospitals.”

Negotiations for a new contract between the government and the Rural Doctors Association of SA and Australian Medical Association remain stalled.

One of the most pressing issues to resolve is the matter of billing, where a local GP is called in to a country hospital to treat a patient who is not admitted.

As The Advertiser revealed last month, this culminated in a case where local GPs called in to an emergency arrival faced sending a bill to the family of a patient who died, as the person had not been admitted.

Dr Gerry Considine, Rural Doctors Association’s doctor of the year in 2020.

Dr Considine said rural medicine was on a knife-edge.

“One sick doctor or unexpected leave and a whole hospital is forced to go on divert, putting pressure on neighbouring towns and the overburdened doctors there,” he said.

Dr Considine noted shifts being advertised at short notice represent poor continuity of care and are “hugely expensive for taxpayers”.

“They are unfortunately our only way to plug gaps in the crumbling facade of emergency rural health care currently,” he said.

Dr Considine warned of an ongoing brain drain, saying he spoke to three junior doctors at a recent conference who are all moving to Queensland next year because there is a “well-paid and clear pathway for them to become rural doctors in that state.”

SA Health says rural GPs are being offered almost 10 per cent extra to be on call for ED cases.

The executive director of SA Health’s Rural Support Service, Debbie Martin, said recruiting rural GPs was one of the most significant challenges for the health system.

“While training and funding of rural GPs is primarily a matter for the federal government, most South Australian country hospitals rely on local GPs to provide medical services,” she said.

She said a workforce plan was being rolled out, which included training positions, more full time interns and advanced skill registrar positions.

Originally published as Locums being offered up to $2600 a day to work in struggling country SA hospitals