Narrandera is said to be losing patients to adjoining towns for medical services due to a problem in recruiting doctors to the town.
The Narrandera Shire Council has now stepped in to help overcome the problem by endorsing the actions of its Mayor Neville Kschenka in offering a recruitment incentive of $35,000 to the Medical Centre to cover the cost of subsidised rental of a suitable dwelling and enrolment fee for the next phase of doctor training.
Council also tasked the General Manager George Cowan to report back to Council on the establishment of a suitable financial reserve to enable Council to fund this initiative and future requests.
Mayor Kschenka said the Narrandera community had enjoyed a relatively good level of medical services based around the Narrandera Medical Centre’s capacity to recruit and train doctors.
“However that ability is under threat and Council was approached by the Medical Centre for support. Overseas trained doctors are becoming scarcer and now have the ability to pick and choose where they are placed.
“With the recent departure of a doctor and his family from Narrandera, the level of service has been exposed and the ability for the expected level of response at the Narrandera Medical Centre compromised,” he said.
Mayor Kschenka said the General Manager and himself had a number of meetings with the Narrandera Medical Centre and with Murrumbidgee Local Health District and it became apparent that the situation required immediate action.
Following advice from the Narrandera Medical Centre, he authorised the establishment of a recruitment assistance package to allow the Cnetre to leverage on the availability of an Australian, partially trained doctor.
“New doctors coming into the practice face considerable immediate expense and take some time to establish rapport with patients. Expenses are substantial and income for the first few weeks is low,” Mayor Kschenka said.
“It is likely that the current situation will be repeated in the future and I have therefore requested the General Manager provides advice to Council on the establishment of a reserve and a policy around the provision of future support.”
Cr Tracey Lewis said she believed it was important for the community to support the local medical centre to ensure doctors would be attracted to the town.
“I think it’s getting harder and harder, so the more we can do, the better off the community will be from this,” she said.
Cr Cameron Lander voiced his concerns about the situation. “This is not unusual for our local practice, it seems to be an ongoing problem,” he said.
“Are there other options they can explore to get doctors and the more critical thing, retain them for a longer period of time than they currently seem to be able to do?”
Mr Cowan delivered an update to council at the meeting.
“In her advice to me, the principal of the medical centre stated what I think is the obvious answer in terms of keeping these doctors once they do arrive and settle – that is a responsibility that is shared by everyone,” Mr Cowan said.
“They must be made to feel they’re a part of the community and they’re very highly valued.
“That’s quite a difficult challenge when they are used to a different culture; they come from overseas and they’ve got different expectations, but it beholds us all to do whatever we can to make sure they’re accepted and made to feel as though they’re extremely valuable and that model does work – I’ve seen that work in other towns where doctors have decided to stay for a very long period of time.
“I know that the proprietors of the medical practice here are looking at their model. They’re trying to do whatever they can to be successful, unfortunately it’s a really competitive environment that they find themselves in.”
Mr Cowan said Narrandera did not “appear to be getting the support some other communities are enjoying from Murrumbidgee Local Health”.
“We had a meeting last month with Jill Ludford and what Murrumbidgee Local Health service could do to support this community,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ve even had a registrar from that service.
“This is not a problem that’s going to be easily solved.”
Cr Sue Ruffles thanked the doctors currently working in town and urged the community to assist by lobbying ministers.
“I think they’d (doctors) be working in quite pressurised circumstances in the practice because there are less people to service our community,” she said.
“Could our community as individuals help strengthen the advocacy? There’s no reason why individuals couldn’t be writing letters to ministers and just getting out there and making a bit of a noise, because I think we’re going to reach a critical point and the more voices that can combine, I think will be to our advantage.”
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 19 December 2024.