THE Rural Doctors Association of Australia has slammed the budget for failing to address the "rural health crisis".
The budget includes no “real measures” to get more doctors to the bush, the RDAA says.
President Nola Maxfield said she was “very frustrated” with the lack of measures to improve rural health outcomes.
“The Rudd Government is still not focusing on the main game in fixing the rural health crisis — the need for more realistic measures to entice more doctors to work in the bush,” Ms Maxfield said.
“It continues to ignore the introduction of realistic measures to actually entice these and other doctors to move to the bush once they have graduated.”
The Government had also ignored calls from the RDAA, the Australian Medical Association and Australian Medical Students Association for a “Rural Rescue Package” to entice doctors to rural areas.
“We welcome the new funding to recruit practice nurses, we also welcome the increased locum support to enable rural nurses to take a break or undertake upskilling,” Ms Maxfield said.
“While we acknowledge the Government will fund some additional infrastructure assistance to assist practices to supervise the GP training, it doesn’t appear to be anywhere near the amount required to meet demand.”
