This morning’s announcement by the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care expanding nurse practitioners’ scope of practice will be a boost for regional healthcare, the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health Dr Anne Webster said today.

“I staged two national summits in Mildura in the last 12 months on the Regional Health Workforce and Regional Aged Care and consulted with peak bodies, those at the coalface and Nationals’ constituents across regional Australia, and they tell me we need more nurse practitioners working to their full scope of practice with access to more Medicare item numbers,” Dr Webster said.

“The Federal Government’s initiative today sounds promising in principle and the Coalition looks forward to seeing the detail.  Expanding the scope of nurse practitioners has merit, it must also be noted that the need for it in regional Australia has been highlighted by the dire shortage of general practice and specialist doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

“There is a mountain of work needed in regional health policy and the Nationals are working hard to deliver a suite of measures to improve the short, medium and long term health outcomes and meet the health workforce needs of our regions.

“Labor cannot rest on its laurels after this announcement because we desperately need more GPs, nurses and other health professionals in our regions. Don’t forget Labor ripped away international medical graduate doctors from the regions with their change to Distribution Priority Areas soon after getting elected, seeing a 56 per cent increase in doctors leaving regional Australia in the first six months alone.

Respected Mallee nurse practitioner Di Thornton said today’s announcement “… will be great for access, for rural and remote people, to have some of the current barriers removed so that they can get the care they need in a timely manner.”