A report looking into the state of Australia's rural health system has found severe disparities in rural health care. The report shows that more than 52 percent of rural Australians are waiting one or more weeks for a routine appointment with their GP and some are forced to wait up to six months to see specialists.
Some have to travel up to 160 kilometers to see a doctor and 2,000 kilometers to access cancer services. 66% of patients need to travel to their doctors the report says. Some patients are being forced to attend accident and emergency units for basic consultations.
According to Rural Doctors' Association of Queensland President Dan Halliday, the rural healthcare is short of at least $1 billion a year. He added, “We believe that currently we are short at least 2,000 doctors across Australia and of course on top of that you have nursing staff and allied health staff to go with that…It's an absolute disgrace that they haven't acknowledged issues associated with rural health.”
The Association also points out that a survey of 1,000 people underlines the need for major parties to announce much more in the final week of the election campaign to boost health care in remote and regional parts of Australia.
The Rural Doctors Association (RDAA) President Dr Nola Maxfield expressed her concern at availability of health care professionals, financial costs of travel and accommodation. “These [findings] are extremely worrying findings should not be occurring in a first world country like Australia. We should be building a first world health system in rural Australia too,” Dr Maxfield said.
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