State MP Dr Joe McGirr has today laid out strategies to get rural health back on track.
Rural health has an opportunity for much-welcomed reform, with a new Rural Health Action Plan prompting the NSW government to take immediate action.
The proposal was put forward by specialist medical administrator Dr Joe McGirr, state member for Wagga Wagga, who is pushing for greater support for the rural health workforce.
The plan looks to cover the full scale of rural health, with a particular focus on maternity care, workforce retention and establishing a rural health watchdog.
Other key features of the six point plan include:
- Ensuring every town should have a doctor and flexible team-based primary care.
- Restoring rural maternity services to allow patients to birth close to home in culturally safe models.
- Replacing expensive locums with permanent teams with funding to housing and financial support.
- Working on embedding community input into health decisions via mandation of genuine consultation with diverse communities.
- Integrating hospitals, GPs, councils and community care as part of multidisciplinary care.
This will be paid for, according to the plan, by stopping the “locum merry-go-round”.
According to the Bureau of Health Information, only 65.1% of elective surgeries at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital were completed on time, dropping by 15.8% from last year.
Median waiting times also saw concerning changes, reaching 370 days – exceeding the clinically recommended 365 days.
“These figures confirm what rural communities already know, regional health has been underfunded, under-planned and deprioritised for far too long,” AMA (NSW) president Dr Kathryn Austin said.
“Rural NSW does not need another round of announcements. It needs long-term funding that strengthens the workforce, expands local services and delivers real structural reform.
“Crisis spending after years of inaction is not leadership. The NSW Government must commit to [implementing the] Rural Health Action Plan in full.”
AMA NSW has also baked the notion of an independent Rural Health Commissioner to ensure accountability and culturally safe care in rural communities.
Investment into maternity care was also touted by the AMA, with Dr Austin highlighting how workforce retention in this area can be assisted by multidisciplinary care.
“Maternity care must be obstetrician or GP obstetrician led and supported by multidisciplinary teams,” Dr Austin said.
“Rural families deserve safe, local care that meets service capability standards.
“One-off funding does not fix structural failures. The BHI data shows the consequences of neglect.”
The Rural Health Action Plan has also been endorsed by ACRRM with the initiative’s plans aligning with ongoing college goals.
“It’s a difficult issue to get lots of momentum on, but you have to get momentum on it,” ACRRM president Dr Rod Martin told The Medical Republic.
“People who live in Nyngan, or Lightning Ridge, they’re all still paying good taxes, they all are paying good money expecting to have lots of these services there.
“If some of the things that are listed in the plan are properly implemented and both rural communities and the doctors that are serving them have a more meaningful input into how services run, then it’s one less impediment to them staying.
“There’s plenty of plenty of opportunities to splash some funds to get people to come to an area, it’s a harder prospect to work out and put into action the things that help them to stay.”
