Rural SA suffering a doctor shortage

Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey said he had noticed a big deficiency in his electorate, prompting him to contact National Rural Health Commissioner Professor Paul Worley.

“I was particularly invested in ensuring he understands just how pressing the shortage is,” Mr Ramsey said.

Mr Ramsey said there was an under-supply in a lot of communities, with many forced to rely on expensive locum services.

He said while there were “significant financial incentives” for doctors to go rural, there were a myriad of reasons why they did not, such as some doctors not having the required GP skill set, a lack of employment opportunities for spouses and the potential need to be on call, seven days a week.

He has “seen the wheel turn” from previously importing doctors to fill vacancies, to trying harder to attract the surplus of Australian-trained doctors to rural areas.

“We are training the pants off new doctors in Australia – we’re going to have too many – but we have no mechanism, no compulsion, no method to tell them to come and work in the country, only incentives,” he said.

Rural Doctors Association of SA vice president Scott Lewis says doctor shortages are a statewide issue and communities with only one or two resident doctors are struggling the most.

“In Keith last week, the sole-resident doctor was required to take personal leave unexpectedly, which left the town without a doctor for several days,” Dr Lewis said.

“Getting doctors out here is really difficult and things that seem to work include attracting doctors who have lived and grown up in country towns, and those who do some kind of country placement early on.”

Dr Lewis said it was extremely important to provide high quality training opportunities and coordinated training pathways for those that did want to extend their time in regional areas. 

“We need to make it easy for the people who want this country training to be able to get it when they need it, particularly for extended training and skills,” he said.

In the 2018 federal budget, $550 million was assigned to a Stronger Rural Health Strategy, expected to deliver 3000 more qualified doctors to regions in the next 10 years, with much of that focused on the east coast.

State Health Minister Stephen Wade said the government was committed to investment in a rural generalist pathway, to increase the number of rural trainees in the country and support rural doctors to add to their procedural skills.

“At the moment, only metropolitan hospitals get what they call ‘teaching hospital money’, but we want to make that money available so country hospitals could share the training program,” Mr Wade said.

Practices with listed vacancies on the Rural Doctors Workforce Agency include Streaky Bay, Port Augusta, Kadina, Clare, Strathalbyn, Middleton, Berri, Lameroo, Bordertown and Robe.

Southern Mallee mayor Andrew Grieger said towns such as Lameroo and Pinnaroo had been attempting to recruit GP’s for many years and were thankful to at least have a permanent part-time doctor and access to locums when required.

He said these medical services were “vital” in maintaining a “vibrant and healthy community”.

Mr Ramsey has plans to meet with the commissioner again earlier this month for further discussions.

“At the end of the day, if we don’t have doctors out here, we will be struggling to keep our hospitals and nursing homes open and then we will be struggling to get anybody to work in these communities at all, so we have to fight for them,” Mr Ramsey said.

STREAKY Bay has been without a doctor since February when its previous long-term doctor retired.

Streaky Bay Medical Clinic Inc vice chairperson Brenton Lynch said since then locum doctor services had been employed, which came at considerable cost to the council and the community of about $2000 a day.

In response, the town held a public meeting, attended by more than 250 people, and decided to form a community-drive incorporated association to run the clinic.

Mr Lynch said the community was “looking for help to help ourselves”, particularly with recruitment and advertising for a doctor.

He will be appealing to government representatives for a “short-term kick, not a long-term prop”.

“We’re really looking to the government to plug the gap caused by the expensive employment of locums until such time as we get a permanent doctor,” he said.

Streaky Bay medical services reach approximately 1800 to 2000 people, one of whom is Josie Williams who laments the loss of the “continuity and familiarity of care” in county hospitals. 

Ms Williams has been a Streaky Bay resident since 1958, when she started as nurse in the Streaky Bay hospital.

“Streaky Bay is a wonderful town and when things like this happen, it affects everybody and I can tell you the morale of people is very concerning, especially the elderly,” she said.

“Our elderly people are saying they're better off to move to Port Lincoln or somewhere else, because we’re travelling there all the time for medical services.”

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