Dr Joe McGirr has launched a major campaign hoping to address issues in regional healthcare. Photo: Chris Roe.
Australia is facing a critical GP shortage that is predicted to snowball to more than 8000 by 2048, with the gap more pronounced in regional communities.
At a press conference on Thursday (4 September), Wagga MP Dr Joe McGirr launched a campaign to put a GP in every small town and to stop spending millions of taxpayer dollars on flying specialists in and out of rural locations.
“There’s no question that attracting healthcare professionals into rural health is a key issue,” he said.
“One of the key aspects is to make sure that the services are there, responsive to community needs, and health practitioners feel supported.
“Several parts of my scheme speak to that.”
The qualified surgeon laid out a grand plan to reshape the rural health system, comprising five more aims: restoring maternity services, replacing temporary doctors (locums) with permanent staff, embedding community input in health decisions, establishing an independent commissioner for rural health, and creating a unified healthcare system.
The plan is built on the recommendations from a recent parliamentary inquiry into remote, rural and regional health.
“A GP guarantee and a primary healthcare service that is functional is immediately attractive,” Dr McGirr said.
“Restoring maternity services means that midwives and GP obstetricians know that there are career pathways.
“Having the community involved in decision-making means that our health workforce knows that it’s coming into an environment of support.”
Dr McGirr believes that addressing these issues won’t require a significant amount of additional funding, and will be repaid over time.
“I understand you can’t spend a lot of money across government services, but we want change,” he said.
“There is already $270 million spent on locum costs. If we can solve that problem, we’ll have more than enough funds for the plan.
“We’re reducing the load on our services with good primary care services, for example, having women birthing closer to home will tackle a whole range of issues around maternity services.
“Making sure that we focus on solving the issue of locum services and fly-in services, and the cost associated with those, will mean support for permanent staff.”
Dr McGirr has already set the wheels in motion and reached out to a range of organisations, other independent MPs in the crossbench and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.
“Sometimes it’s very hard for government to see the wood for the trees, and I think that often leads to debate, discussion about this policy point or that policy point, and nothing gets done,” Dr McGirr said.
“What we need is a simple, straightforward action plan.”
Dr McGirr does not support the recent push by neighbouring Murray MP Helen Dalton to split the Murrumbidgee Local Health District to provide more localised services for small towns.
“I think the answer is to focus on some key areas that will make a difference, that won’t break the budget and will improve lives,” he said.
“We will build an alliance to put pressure on the government, and I would like that to include pressure from the different parties.
“What we need in this space is not more debate, not more policy discussion, not more political infighting.
“We actually need to agree on some simple steps and get the machinery of government behind that.”
