Two professional medical bodies are calling for the governments to provide more support and create better incentives to attract doctors to regional and remote areas.
Royal Australian College Of General Practitioners and Australian Medical Association of Queensland want action from all levels of governments to address GP shortages in regional and remote areas, following a state petition for urgent medical practitioners in Mission Beach, Cardwell, Tully and Ingham.
RACGP Rural Council chair associate professor and general practitioner Michael Clements, owns three practices in Townsville and previously worked as the director of Ingham Hospital.
He said he was aware of the situation in the Hinchinbrook electorate and believed more needed to be done to support GPs.
"It was no surprise when I saw the petition come out, to me it shows that the issues are getting desperate for these communities," Dr Clements said.
"They've stopped waiting for the federal or state governments to solve it so they're trying to take it into their own hands by starting petitions to try and gather attention.
"We've seen councils, like in Julia Creek, where they've been frustrated with the lack of government support and put their hand into their own pocket and offered a car, house and income package to recruit out there, so it is certainly a sign of things that are going on."
Dr Clements said the state government had options to assist GPs and more support was needed.
"We know there are situations where the government has stepped in to prop-up general practice services, sometimes by letting a GP clinic operate out of their facility, sometimes where the hospital salaries the doctor and they work in primary care out of their facility," he said.
"In the central west region of Longreach we've got a number of traditional general practices where the state government is actually funding it and running the services. So there are options.
"Remote general practices just aren't viable financially viable.. we need to recognise market failure and the state govt needs to work with the community and for example council or the state govt may offer a tenancy, and that takes away one of the big expenses and it turn a practice from being non-viable into viable.
"We need systems and mechanisms that encourage doctors to be drawn out of a city role into some of these regional roles. To do this you need to offer them good money and offer them things like support for spouse employment or childcare and housing."
AMA Queensland president Dr Maria Boulton said there was a healthcare workforce shortage across Queensland and more needed to be done to attract students to the industry.
"We are advocating for the federal and state governments to find new ways to attract doctors, nurses and other workers to these towns and make them want to stay," Dr Boulton said.
"Last weekend AMA Queensland hosted a junior doctor conference in Townsville for doctors in training and medical students to showcase the wonderful lifestyle and career choices outside of south east Queensland. Earlier in the year we held a medical conference in Hervey Bay to highlight the beautiful Fraser Coast region.
"But it is about more than just attracting them to regional Queensland - we have to ensure they have somewhere to live, work options for their partners and schools for their children."
Dr Bolton said she welcomed the Queensland government's financial incentives for interstate and international healthcare workers to move to our regions.
"We would like to see this broadened to include GPs and other private specialists, not just public hospital staff, and we'd like to see some recognition for those workers already in our regions," Ms Boulton said.
"We're also calling for the state government to follow Victoria's lead and provide financial incentives for doctors to pursue general practice as their specialty.
"Our GP numbers are declining and we need to build that workforce for the future."
Mr Clements said another issue the industry faced was long lead times for overseas doctors wanting to move to Australia.
"It is about 18 months from when they want to move to Australia and when they can start work and that is due to red tape, so we need to work on that and there is come work being done by the Federal Government to speed that process up.
"This is a state problem whether they think it is or not, and they do need to think about how they can solve it."
Samantha Campbell
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
