Rural and regional health and workforce discussed this week
Updates from AMA Council of Rural Doctors and a report on regional skills in the National Press Club this week
The AMA Council of Rural Doctors (AMACRD) met on Monday 22 May 2023 for its second quarterly meeting of 2023. Dr Ian Kamerman, Chair of AMACRD, led discussions on issues related to the delivery of health services in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia.
AMACRD discussed the recent budget announcements with the Department of Health and Aged Care and highlighted the importance on educating the public about the budget implementation. The council welcomed the government's commitment to improve primary care but underlined the need for funding on specialised care for rural and regional communities.
AMARCD also discussed the recommendations of the ‘Independent review of overseas health practitioner regulatory settings’ by Robyn Kruk AO. The council emphasised the need to support internationally trained medical graduates (IMGs) who have been a major source of medical workforce in rural Australia.
The council discussed the ongoing crisis in rural maternity care and the need to develop a stakeholder action plan to address issues in providing maternity care in rural, remote and regional settings.
In other rural health news this week Liz Ritchie, CEO of the Regional Australia Institute (RAI), spoke at the National Press Club about the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 plan and the RAI 2022 report “Regional Jobs 2022: The Big Skills Challenge”.
Regional Jobs 2022: The Big Skills Challenge analyses regional job vacancy data from both 2022 and from the last decade to present a view of the labour market challenges and opportunities in regional Australia.
“The RAI’s decadal snapshot shows some regions have recorded five-year vacancy growth rates for medical practitioners and nurses of more than 500 per cent, with the North Coast NSW IVI region looking to fill more than 400 roles.”
The report shows medical practitioners and nurses are the most in demand roles in regional Australia based on total vacancy numbers. December 2022 vacancies of 6,166 were up 25 per cent year on year and nearly 200 per cent from five years prior. Despite regional Australia representing a third of the population, nearly half of medical practitioner and nursing vacancies are in regional Australia. Of all regional areas, half have this grouping as the most in-demand in their region.
