AMA's Dr David Rivett Honoured for Services to Rural Medicine

Dr Rivett, a GP in the Batemans Bay area of NSW, said today that the gap between city and country health services is getting wider and country people all around Australia are missing out on many of the basic health services that other Australians take for granted.

"There are fewer doctors and other health professionals coming to work and stay in rural Australia, more of our smaller hospitals are closing down, and people are being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres for vital medical procedures and services," Dr Rivett said.

"Country people are no longer getting a fair go on health."

Dr Rivett said many of the solutions to the problems in rural health are neither costly nor complicated.

He said governments should be cooperating to take practical steps, including:

• Increasing funding for the medical specialist outreach program by 25 per cent to give country people better access to specialist care
• Increasing funding for the rural retention program and extend payment eligibility to cover specialists - particularly to address the ageing rural workforce
• Introducing a public interest test to govern the proposed closure of rural public hospitals to help stem the loss of procedural skills in rural areas
• Providing more funding for training and support for overseas trained doctors who are a substantial part of the rural workforce
• Providing more quality training places to encourage doctors to get a taste of rural medicine

Dr Rivett said that he and his rural doctor colleagues are not getting any younger and it's time that something drastic was done to address the ageing and declining rural medical workforce.

AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, congratulated Dr Rivett and all the other doctors whose dedication to medicine and their communities was recognised on Australia Day.