Yarra Valley doctors say Federal Government's More Doctors For Outer Metropolitan Areas Strategy won't work
AMA President, Dr Kerryn Phelps, has been told by grassroots doctors in Victoria's Yarra Valley that the GP workforce shortage is serious and that the Federal Government's More Doctors For Outer Metropolitan Areas strategy simply won't work.
Dr Phelps met with more than 40 of the Valley's doctors and health workers in Healesville this morning to discuss the major issues affecting medical practice in the area, including doctor shortages and medical indemnity.
"The local doctors of the Yarra Valley have confirmed what the AMA has been saying - the Federal Government's response to the GP workforce shortages in regional and outer-urban areas is inadequate and misdirected," Dr Phelps said.
"For a start, the zoning definitions of areas of health need must be reviewed.
"The Yarra Valley is classified as 'metropolitan', so the doctors don't qualify for rural incentives such as grants for practice nurses. That's crazy. People in this area have a 100 kilometre round rip to the nearest hospital or they have to set off on an 80 kilometre round trip to get an X-ray."
Dr John Lockwood, Chairman of the Eastern Ranges GP Association, said there were too many anomalies in the selection process of practices for the More Doctors For Outer Metropolitan Areas strategy - due to start on 1 January 2003 - for it to work.
"The program lacks detail and substance. The nature and mechanism of the assistance is still not clear to us," Dr Lockwood said.
Dr Phelps said the feedback from the Yarra Valley doctors confirms the findings of the recent AMA/Access Economics GP Workforce Survey.
"The GPs still working in country towns are getting older and we don't have a new generation of younger GPs willing or appropriately trained to take their place," Dr Phelps said.
"When we need a strategic and careful Federal Government policy to facilitate generational change, all we are getting is a 'band-aid'. It's not good enough.
"It takes 10 to 12 years to properly train GPs to serve these communities and we need incentives not just to attract new doctors but to keep them there. A further impediment is that the training of new GPs is in disarray. Applicant numbers are falling because of uncertainty and inflexible working conditions.
We need forward looking programs to address the health needs 10 or 20 years down the track. The current initiatives don't do that," Dr Phelps said.
CONTACT: Sarah Crichton (02) 6270 5472 / (0419) 440 076