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Acute doctor shortage leaves patients untendedSale and East Gippsland towns have such an acute shortage of general practitioners that local people are often unable to see a doctor urgently, the Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has told Parliament. By Kevin Balshaw - 23rd September 2009 - Back to News Sale and East Gippsland towns have such an acute shortage of general practitioners that local people are often unable to see a doctor urgently, the Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has told Parliament.
Mr Davis said the shortage of doctors was worsening and heading towards a crisis in basic health services for Sale and centres throughout East Gippsland.
He acknowledged the importance of the Monash University Gippsland Medical School’s training program and the federally-funded getGP program in giving medical students and undergraduates experience in a regional setting as a means of encouraging them to practice in country centres.
But he said the programs were taking time to achieve positive results, and the long-term impact was constrained by the fact that they relied almost solely on positive local experience as the factor that would motivate young doctors to stay in the country.
Mr Davis emphasised in Parliament that families in the area were finding it increasingly difficult to get a prompt consultation with a GP. At Sale it had become impossible, even in an urgent situation, to get an appointment with a GP under about three weeks.
He cited the case of the distraught mother of a 15-month-old girl who began showing signs of severe congestion after earlier suffering pneumonia.
"The mother was unable to get access to a GP and told repeatedly to resort to visiting the hospital emergency department," he said. "But, as she accepted, it is not the proper role of an emergency department to fill the gap in general practice."
Mr Davis called on Health Minister Daniel Andrews too secure more GPs for Sale to resolve its immediate problem, and implement a broader strategy to lift the doctor-patient ratio in country regions to the statewide average.
He said the situation at Sale and in East Gippsland refuted the minister’s repeated claims that the Government was effectively addressing the shortage of country doctors.
"The 77,000 people living in the area covered by the East Gippsland Division of General Practice – the area from Sale, Heyfield and Maffra to the state border – have one GP for every 1227 patients," Mr Davis said.
"This is well above the state average of one doctor to 1007 patients, and I suggest the situation is fairly typical of all the state’s more distant regions.
"It is unacceptable that people in the regions are forced to live without an adequate level of primary community health care."
Mr Davis submitted to Parliament last year that the state should implement an Australian Medical Association plan to fund more doctor training and recruit practitioners to country centres to overcome the shortage of doctors, but the Government rejected the plan.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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