Democrats solid on rural health – but will the major parties’ key proposals help?

As a result of their rural health policy launch in Ballarat last week, the Democrats are now scoring 15 out of 20 on the National Rural Health Alliance’s election scorecard. The extra points result from the Democrats’ commitments on a plan for the rural and remote health sector, new primary health care and mental health care centres, HECS reimbursement schemes and other programs promoting access for students from rural areas to medical and allied health courses.

Meanwhile Labor has 12 points out of 20, and the Coalition six.

The new clinics being proposed by Labor and the Coalition are welcome initiatives but seem largely targeted at outer metro areas and major regional centres.

According to the Alliance, it appears only regional and outer metropolitan centres will have the population to qualify for one of the new GP clinics. This means there will need to be complementary incentives for medium sized and small communities if they are to be able to provide the services to which their residents are entitled.

Although there may be more GPs trained and available in the long run, in the short term it is a zero sum game. There are only so many GPs available and, if there are no systematic reform measures for rural and remote areas, the result will be a redistribution of doctors to regional centres rather than an improvement in services and access overall.

Many rural GPs are already providing round-the-clock on-call service but it seems they will only be eligible for the full Coalition Family Emergency Medical Centre funding if they open their surgeries 24 hours a day 7 days a week or a smaller grant if they stay open to 11pm. This would be a physical impossibility for a small country practice.

The Alliance would like to see a comprehensive health care plan for all parts of rural and remote Australia, rather than piecemeal announcements.