Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President with Mary Keily, ABC Radio Goldfields, Bendigo, 5 October 2001

PHELPS: I'm well Mary.

KEILY: Why are you doing this?

PHELPS: Well I think it's important, in the lead-up to the Federal Election, that we highlight where there are problems in the health system and what can be done about them.

And I think that has to happen, not only at a Federal level, but at a local level. And we have a very active doctor network around the whole country, in all of the different electorates, who are involved in visiting their local MPs and prospective MPs and talking to them about the issues that are of importance.

Because these are people who are going to be making legislative decisions that set health policy for the future.

KEILY: Now you've been, quite, around Australia to talk to doctors from regional communities. You were in Bendigo last night. What do the doctors say to you specifically?

PHELPS: Well it was a very good meeting last night. We were very well attended by a range of specialists, from general practitioners, anaesthetists, obstetricians and gynaecologists, surgeons. We had hospital administrators and we even had three interns from the local hospital which was fantastic to see those young people coming along, because they're interested.

Obviously one of the issues that arose was the high number of disadvantaged people who are living in this area. In fact it's the twelfth poorest constituency in Australia.

And there was a concern about, number one, the lack of numbers of GPs. So the GPs who are working here are working very hard. And also the fact that the Medicare Benefit Schedule is quite inadequate. There's almost no bulk-billing in Bendigo, which people in Bendigo would know.

KEILY: That's true.

PHELPS: And so the people who are disadvantaged, either the doctors would have to subsidise Medicare, in order to make sure that people could afford their care, or they would have to be subsidising it themselves.

And that's one of the issues that, really, is a recurrent theme right around Australia. And that is the inadequacy of where Medicare is at the moment, particularly for general practice services, but right across the board. Obstetrics is another area that's very inadequate.

KEILY: Mmm. For me, as a consumer, I find it really hard to get one doctor. And for any doctor, to be a new patient in the country is very tricky. You have to do a lot of ringing around as well.

We just spoke to the CEO of the Ballarat Health Services who said he'd like to see the university program increased. That to graduate studies. Did that come up last night?

PHELPS: It certainly did. We had three interns there who are obviously looking, at the very beginning of their careers, at where they want to head. One of the doctors there said that she wanted to work in the country. That was her aim, had been her aim since she started medical school. And, in fact, she'd actually encountered a number of roadblocks along the way, with people discouraging her actively from doing her training in rural areas.

Now that's something we have to change. That's a mentality, it's a thought process that we have to change within the people who actually make the decisions about training. Because I think, if we do have rural centre training rather than city centre training, we're more likely to get people to see the benefits, the advantages of working in areas like Bendigo and Ballarat. And have them stay in those areas.

KEILY: Now the Grampians has the lowest life expectancy, I think, in the State. What about suicide? Was that mentioned as a real eyesore?

PHELPS: One of the real problems about suicide is how to prevent it. And we need to know what causes it, how to prevent it. And I do believe that, because Australia has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the western world, that it is a matter or urgency that we look at a vast range of youth health initiatives to make sure that we treat suicide before it becomes an issue for a young person.

So we look at things like youth unemployment. A sense of helplessness, family dysfunction. Mental illness amongst the young. And psychiatric services, both in Bendigo and Ballarat, I'm told are appallingly inadequate.

And you can't have preventive strategies without having adequate counselling and psychiatric services in regional areas.

KEILY: One thing that would stop some people from becoming GPs, that to find out that it's very hard to find someone to cover for you, as a locum, if you want to take holidays. And that you're on call 24 hours. That's just dreadful.

Ah, so you have been in Bendigo last night. You're off to Ballarat today. Whereabouts are you going to be?

PHELPS: We're going into Ballarat today. I'm going to be meeting, actually with the President of the Royal Australian College of GPs, who's a GP in Ballarat. And I'm having a meeting with all of the GPs and other specialists in Ballarat, at lunchtime today.

KEILY: Good. Great to meet you.

PHELPS: Nice to meet you too Mary.

KEILY: Kerryn Phelps, who's the President of the Australian Medical Association, who's listening to doctors in central Victoria.

Ends