April 26, 2022
KATTER’S Australian Party (KAP) candidate for Dawson, Ciaron Paterson, says more emphasis on creating pathways for students from rural Australia to go into medicine is the solution to GP shortages in country Australia.
“Creating more spaces in university won’t help if there’s still no desire to go to the bush.
“Universities are using the GP shortages to call for more funding and places, but that’s not where the issue is.
“If medical graduates are overwhelmingly wanting to go live in the cities or the Gold Coast because of what they see are the life-style benefits, then training more doctors isn’t necessarily the answer.
“The answer is to train more doctors who see rural living as a viable life-style choice, and you’re more likely to see kids from the country wanting to call it home than someone from the suburbs of Brisbane.”
Mr Paterson said increasing the number of university places open to rural students would be a good start, but he said he also wants the bonded medical placement scheme to get an overhaul.
Mr Paterson said the current bonded scheme is an abysmal failure because it is being exploited by students using it as a side-door into medical school.
“There was testimony put forward in the Senate Inquiry that students go into the scheme with the mentality of how quickly can I buy-out my contract.”
KAP wants to see the service obligation under-taken within the first three years of finishing training, down from the current window of 18 years.
Mr Paterson said the issue residents in his electorate face is not just the shortage of GPs, but the under-servicing from clinics that bulk bill for all patients.
The Queensland government’s Health Direct website shows only a small handful of bulk billing clinics in the Whitsunday’s region from Bowen to Mackay.
“In my region, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clinic that has bulk billing for all-comers. They might have it for patients under 16 or card holders, but that’s it.”
To address the problem, short-term, Mr Paterson said KAP wants to see the salaries of rural GPs working in bulk billing clinics underpinned by an $80,000 a year government grant or bonus.
“It’s just a top-up to give incentives to clinics to maintain a bulk billing system.”