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Patients running out of patience as they wait for a doctor

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Ally Scholl is looking for a general practitioner for her family but hasn’t been able to get any appointments yet.

Laura Anderson Parker said she finally found a decent GP but then “they are gone again. And repeat”.

Sheryl Nielsen said it took weeks to get in to see a doctor.

“No possibility to access appointments for acute care. Booked a face to face on Wednesday, July 13 and can’t get in until August 8,” Ms Nielsen said.

Jodie Zink said finding a GP was a common problem in all country towns and has been for a while.

“The government needs to provide an incentive for doctors to stay for say a five-year contract and a lump sum at the end,” Ms Zink.

There are two general practices (medical clinics or doctor offices) in Kyogle, six in the Richmond Valley (five in Casino and one in Evans Head) and 12 in Lismore.

The official number of general practices has remained steady in the past three years sitting between 180-185, according to a Healthy North Coast spokesperson.

The number of doctors across the North Coast region is increasing faster than the population, she said.

Yet those numbers don’t seem to be relieving the problem of finding a GP.

Many clinics such as the Maria Clinic in Casino are not taking on new patients.

And unusually, when a doctor leaves, the clinic does not automatically allocate them another doctor at the clinic.

Healthy North Coast said there were many reasons for this.

“When a practising GP resigns or retires, practices may be able to allocate patients to an incoming GP or other GPs within the practice, but this is not always possible. There may be delays or difficulty in recruiting or periods of part-time or temporary coverage from a locum doctor.

“If a practice cannot continue to care for a patient for any reason including capacity limitations and staff shortages, patients may be provided with access to their medical record and supported to transfer care to another provider.”

That’s if the patient can find a GP.

The National Health Workforce Dataset predicted the number of GPs across the region during 2013-2019 increased from 1.3 to 1.4 per 1,000. This is above the relevant NSW and Australian averages.

Based on these trends, Healthy North Coast expected the number of North Coast GPs to rise to 869 by 2025. This represents 1.6 GPs for every 1000 people.

So, things should be getting better.  But they’re not. The lack of rural doctors is not a new problem.

Gae Masters said she was proud her eldest child was currently a third-year medical student and was aiming to become a rural GP.

Reville Saw had a good idea, “people who do that should have their student debt absolved.”

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners reported that 1394 medical graduates applied to do general practice training in the college’s most recent intake. This was a 30% drop from the 2000 applications in 2017.

Although online GP consultations may help alleviate the wait for patients, chatting to a doctor on screen won’t suit everyone and it has its limitations.

Healthy North Coast has a free, 24/7 GP Telehealth service to provide care when people cannot access a GP.

People can call 1800 931 158 to get information, advice, diagnosis, treatment and electronic prescriptions.

 These can be filled at a local pharmacy.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 21 July 2022.

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