Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health Anne Webster says Mallee would be an ideal location for the Federal Government to expand its trial of the Rural Generalist Single
Employer Model.

The Federal Government announced $4.5 million over 5 years to expand its trial of the model to a further 10 sites in Tuesday night’s budget, with Dr Webster calling for Mallee to be included.

The Single Employer Model allows trainee GPs to work in both state-run hospitals and privately run clinics but get paid by a single employer, being the state government or local health district.
“When I delivered the Regional Health Workforce Summit in March, the Single Employer Model was one policy lever that had support among the 130 frontline health workers who attended and made their views known,” Dr Webster said.

“I support any initiative to train medical professionals in the regions where it is reasonably practical, and Labor will do well to recognise the opportunities in Mallee for the model to expand.”

Tuesday night’s budget also included $4.2 million over two years from 2022–23 to support James Cook University to deliver the Australian General Practice Training program.

“That’s all well and good for Queensland’s James Cook University, but what about Mallee’s universities and hospitals?” Dr Webster said.

“We need to see more training opportunities across regional Australia, including here in Mallee.”

A suite of other healthcare measures were announced in Labor’s budget, including more than $5.7 billion towards General Practice over the next five years.
“While investment in General Practice is welcomed, the million dollar question remains: where is Labor’s plan for workforce?” Dr Webster said.
“The tripling of the Bulk Billing Incentive and a 30% increase to the Workforce Incentive program to assist the covering of costs of running general practice – but the simple fact is that GPs in regional towns are seriously overworked and there aren’t enough to meet patient need.

“Labor bled the regions of International Medical Graduate doctors when they expanded the Distribution Priority Areas last year, funneling these professionals from the regions to peri-urban settings, and as a result many in Mallee can’t even get in to see a doctor to be bulk billed in the first place.

“Labor announced $31.6 million over two years for improved training arrangements for International Medical Students working in rural and remote locations – but a direct result of their policy is there are less of these doctors to make use of those arrangements.”

Dr Webster raised the issue that the Budget has not addressed dire workforce shortages in regional towns.

“The fact is that the 9 million Australians who live in outer regional communities are invisible to Labor. It is unacceptable. I will continue to fight for better services to meet the needs of our regions.”