As summer temperatures continue to rise, the heat is on the government to match rural relief needs.
Rural health advocates are aiming their flame to the government in a call for proportionate funding, as fires and flooding become increasingly common.
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) said extreme weather conditions have been increasing health risks for rural, remote and First Nations communities.
This has consequently placed a higher demand on health services in these areas, creating long-term challenges for health system resilience.
ACRMM president Dr Rod Martin argued that rural generalists should be more central to weather crisis responses and be better integrated into disaster planning at all levels.
“There’s not sufficient recognition that they need to be integrated ahead of time before the disaster arrives,” Dr Martin told The Medical Republic.
“[Rural generalists] need to be built into the disaster management plan, because there’s often not a lot of understanding about the inbuilt capacity that rural generalists [offer] and the practices that they keep running.
“That’s something that needs to be built in, otherwise what you’re doing is having to transport people out.”
Multiple rural health groups have advocated for rural health services to receive additional funding to better support disaster relief preparations.
It’s a lesson that many rural health workers have experienced first-hand.
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Greater recognition of health services as an essential service during natural disasters has been pushed by Ballina general surgeon Dr Sue Velovski, who assisted in recovery efforts following the Lismore floods.
“In the event of an emergency or a disaster, medical facilities, doctors, we should still be under the same guise as all the things like electricity and water,” Dr Velovski told TMR.
“Without people staying there in the communities to deal with these heat related injuries, to deal with the lung injuries from heat and from bush fires and from the lung injuries from floods, we just fight these things.
“It would benefit if we work together as a Commonwealth because arguments between the Commonwealth and the States definitely do not benefit rural communities, they disadvantage rural communities.”
Further funding is still being argued for, despite on-ground improvements to further assist rural services to address system flaws before they worsen in times of natural disasters.
“I feel like disaster money has come quicker than what they did for Lismore, so there have been lessons learned,” Dr Velovski told TMR.
“When there’s artificial blocks in terms of funding from state and federal governments, that’s where we get into worsening a situation that could have been improved.
“I was heartened to hear that people were getting disaster funding straight away from government departments up in Queensland and Victoria.
“So maybe the disasters of 2022, are helping people say we could have done that better, and now we are.”
