Minister in town to attend doctors' forum

MAY 16, 2018: A FORUM of the region’s general practitioners will be held in Mackay tonight to discuss local issues including attracting more doctors to the region and increasing accessibility of bulk-billing services.Minister for Rural Health, Senator Bridget McKenzie met with Mackay GP Dr John McIntosh today ahead of the forum. Minister McKenzie said the 2018-19 Coalition Budget investment of $550 million through the Stronger Rural Health Strategy will provide 3,000 additional specialist GPs and 3,000 extra nurses in rural general practices over the next 10 years.“The Coalition Government believes that when it comes to healthcare, regional Australians should have the same access to the types of high-quality services as people living in our capital cities,” Minister McKenzie said.“Our Stronger Rural Health Strategy will deliver much needed doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to support Australians in regional areas, providing a significant boost to our primary health care system.“This is an historic 10 year plan which represents the most significant overhaul of Australia’s health system in decades.”I welcome the Strategy which addresses a number of issues facing health professionals in rural practices including incentives for practices to employ multidisciplinary teams to support GPs, more targeted bulk billing and incentives to attract more junior doctors into towns like Mackay.Measures under the Stronger Rural Health Strategy will mean junior doctors will be further supported to work in private practice in rural locations. Additionally, the Workforce Incentive Program will incentivise GPs into rural towns and encourage practices to employ multidisciplinary teams consisting of nurses and allied health professionals to better service people living in the regions.Most GPs in Mackay and the Whitsundays offer residents bulk billing services. The Stronger Rural Health Strategy addresses issues around outdated geographic data which has been relied on for several MBS billing numbers since 1991. This updated data will ensure these rural specific MBS numbers are only being accessed by GPs who are practising in rural and remote locations.We do need to support the training and retention of doctors in regional areas such as in my electorate of Dawson. Minister McKenzie and I are fighting hard to ensure residents of rural towns like Mackay or those up in Ayr have access to the same high quality services, such as people in metropolitan centres like Brisbane.Through changes to the existing Skilled Migration Program in the 2018 Budget, Minister McKenzie said the Coalition Government will improve the targeting of visas for general practitioners to areas experiencing doctor shortages.“Doctors will be directed away from over-serviced metropolitan and outer metropolitan areas to regions of workforce need, which are our local communities in regional Australia,” Minister McKenzie said.“The Coalition Government’s Stronger Rural Health Strategy is a comprehensive package designed to address workforce distribution and will provide Australians with the right mix of qualified health professionals in the right place, at the right time to deliver high quality health care.”