Australia’s first National Rural Health Commissioner, South Australian practitioner and academic Paul Worley, has announced he will attempt to change the narrative surrounding health in Australia, and have it considered as an investment, not a cost to the nation.
Professor Worley said creating a rural workforce was an investment into people and the economy.
“We know studies from around the world that there is about an 8-to-1 return on every dollar that is spent on creating a rural health workforce to the economy,” he said.
“There is increased productivity, a lack of churn from people who move from towns and it is an outright employer.
“For every year of life expectancy we increase, the gross domestic product goes up 4 per cent, which is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country's economy.”
Prof Worley said the success of his initial two-year term will be determined by the relationships that he can forge with those at the political decision-making table and other departments, to make decisions that will deliver the best results for rural Australians.
“It needs to be an investment across all state and commonwealth jurisdictions, as well as other departments because it is not just a health investment. If education get it wrong, then if effects everybody,” he said.
Having previously been disillusioned with universities’ approach to training medical practitioners, Prof Worley said although they were creating well-trained specialists for the city, they were perhaps not recruiting the right students or providing training in the right places to support regional Australia.
“We actually know a lot of what we need to do, we know the evidence available in terms of rural origin and training, yet we somehow fall short of coming together to do it,” he said.
He said it was a privilege to be a rural doctor.
“It is a courageous step by the federal government to appoint an independent person for the vital role,” he said.
“It could be 10 years before we see the fruit of our work but we will see changes in two years because people in rural communities will be confident that new medical people will be coming to their community, or current practitioners will decide to stay because of what we have put in place to make it worthwhile.”
Prof Worley will begin his new appointment on November 11.
