Rural response to the PM’s call for a stronger health workforce
The lobby group, Rural Health Workforce Australia (RHWA), has praised PM Mr Kevin Rudd for listening to Australia’s farmers and announcing a rural health workforce audit.
The RHWA said the PM understands the important link between access to health services and the prosperity and wellbeing of rural and remote communities.
PM Rudd has announced an immediate Government audit of the shortage of doctors and nurses and other health professionals in rural Australia, to examine the reasons for these shortages, and then ask the Australian Department of Health and Ageing to provide the Government with a range of options for attracting and retaining health professionals in rural Australia.
Mr Rudd said: “I know enough about rural Australia to know that there is a real problem here. No matter which rural community I visit in New South Wales, Victoria, in the West or here in Queensland, there is a problem of supply of rural doctors and nurses.”
