A growing health crisis in the Clarence Valley which has locals waiting up to a month to see a doctor has seen the Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan call on the Albanese Government to “End the Rural Doctor Crisis now.”

During this year many community members have expressed concern to the CV Independent that infrastructure and services in the Clarence Valley are insufficient to cope with the population growth, and the wait to get an appointment to see a doctor is increasing.  

When Mr Hogan met with health workers in Grafton last week, he said the Albanese government should immediately reverse its 2022 decision on Distribution Priority Areas DPA’s, which saw them expanded to include outlying suburbs of Sydney, which has seen GPs leave rural areas and move closer to the city.

The Distribution Priority Area classification identifies locations in Australia with a shortage of medical practitioners, which enables overseas-trained doctors and Commonwealth Scholarship Students to work in an area and claim Medicare benefits.  

As both the Clarence Valley and outlying Sydney suburbs are classified as Distribution Priority Areas, Mr Hogan said the decision to include the Sydney suburbs should be reversed to incentivise doctors to remain working in the Clarence Valley.

“The Albanese Government’s decision last year to include outer urban areas in the DPAs resulted in an immediate drain of experienced medical personnel from rural and regional areas to the city,” Mr Hogan said.

“Outer urban areas of Sydney including parts of Penrith and the Northern Beaches now have the same classification as Grafton when it comes to Distribution Priority Areas.

“In parts of inner Sydney there’s one GP for every 500 people, compared to one for every 5000 in some regional communities.”

Mr Hogan said medical professionals in Grafton told him the local health service was sliding into crisis due to a severe shortage of GPs.

“Nursing home beds are closed because there aren’t enough doctors to serve the aged care patients, leading to long waiting lists for nursing home beds and adding further pressure to already strained hospitals,” he said.

Mr Hogan said was also asking the federal government to get Medicare provider numbers to be linked to specific postcodes to get more doctors into regional areas.

“There also needs to be more financial incentives to attract GPs to regional areas,” he said.

“The staff shortages are placing unacceptable pressures on those people working hard to hold the system together.”

In a statement to the CV Independent, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said there is no higher priority in health for the Albanese Government than rebuilding general practice.

“After nine long years of cuts and neglect by the former government, the Albanese Government is making Medicare stronger for all Australians,” he said.

“Peter Dutton froze the Medicare rebate when he was the Health Minister almost 10 years ago.

“A freeze that remained in place for six long years and that led to a very substantial decline in bulk billing in general practice.

“The former government ripped billions of dollars out of primary care and caused gap fees to skyrocket.”

Mr Butler said no wonder young doctors are walking away from General Practice in droves, like they are in regional areas like the Clarence Valley.

“Our historic investments in Medicare will triple the bulk billing incentive – the largest increase to the incentive in the 40-year history of Medicare,” he said.

“This will help over 5 million children and their families, and more than 7 million pensioners and concession card holders to see a bulk billed GP.

“Doctors’ groups have called this a ‘game-changer’ and GPs right around the country have said this will help them maintain and even shift back to bulk billing.”

Mr Butler said on top of the investment in bulk billing, the government is investing in a $1.5 billion indexation boost to every single Medicare rebate, increasing the amount that doctors receive for each Medicare service and reducing pressure on GPs.

“This increases rebates more in a single year than the former government did in seven years,” he said.

“And we’re making it easier for Australians to get the care they need by growing the health workforce and supporting all our trusted health workers to do what they’re trained to do.”

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 23 August 2023.