Pithy one liners by the Victorian Premier will not fix healthcare in regional Australia, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health Anne Webster says.

Ahead of Friday’s meeting of National Cabinet, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and his New South Wales counterpart Dominic Perrottet have announced they will join forces to seek a national deal to overhaul Medicare and increase Federal hospital funding.

“Any national response needs to include how we address the health crisis in the regions.” Dr Webster said.

“It’s all well and good for Dan Andrews to make grand statements about ‘better pay for GPs, more university places for young people studying medicine and more incentives for international GPs to make Australia home’, which he says will fix Medicare. These statements in and of themselves will not address critical workforce shortages in country towns, nor remove the damage of the expanded Distribution Priority Areas (DPA) or provide more opportunities for regional students to study health in the regions.

“The disaster that 9 million regional people currently face with no GP appointments and a shrinking workforce is unprecedented and must have a holistic approach which hears from existing regional health workforce.”

Dr Webster said there were incentives for International GPs to make Australia home, however current Labor policy expanding the DPA raises serious concern about the redirection of International Medical Graduates from regional areas to outer urban centres, exacerbating vast healthcare deserts.

“I have asked for information on the impact of the DPA expansion on regional areas but have received no answer,” Dr Webster said.

More University places for health and medical students is a long-term solution for workforce issues, however Dr Webster said there must be places and facilities at regional campuses so regional medical students can study in their region, with research showing they are more inclined to remain and work there.

“We know that when our best and brightest in the regions leave to go to the city to study it is hard to get them back,” Dr Webster said.

“This is why I fought for $3.3 million to build new bio medical science lab at La Trobe University’s Mildura campus before the last election, in recognition of that fact. The current Labor Government needs to invest in regional health pathways, rather than big builds in cities that leave regions in crisis.”

Minister Butler is set to report on the recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare taskforce in coming days after the National Cabinet meeting.

The report is set to call for an expansion of multidisciplinary care and MBS funding to a greater range of health professionals, voluntary patient enrolment with GP practices and digital reforms.

“What we need to see from Minister Butler are grassroots engagement and solutions for regional healthcare delivery,” Dr Webster said.

“This is why I am holding the Mildura Regional Health Workforce Summit in a months’ time, policy needs to be developed recognising the unique challenges of healthcare delivery in regional areas as opposed to a one size fits all approach.”