Government funds to help keep medicos in the EurobodallaEurobodalla doctors will be offered grants of up to $18,000 a year under a new Federal Government incentive that aims to keep them in the region.
For more local news and photos grab a copy of the Bay Post or Moruya Examiner.
To be eligible for the funding, doctors must work in - or be relocating for work to - an area that qualifies under the Government’s remoteness area classifications - RA1, RA2 and RA3.
While Batemans Bay and Moruya doctors qualify for up to $12,000 under the inner regional or RA2 classification, doctors at Tuross and Narooma will receive up to $18,000 a year for working in an RA3 or outer regional classified area.
Rural and Regional Health Minister Warren Snowdon announced the reforms in
Batemans Bay on Friday. He believes the changes will provide a significant boost for local doctors.
“Keeping existing GPs in (the area) and encouraging more doctors to move here ... benefits all residents of the southern NSW coastal region,” he said.
“Under the current outdated system of incentive payments, GPs in Batemans Bay qualify for a retention grant of up to $5000 per year only after an initial six-year wait.”
However, Mr Snowden said, from July 1 next year, doctors who relocate to Batemans Bay would receive grants of up to $15,000.
“On top of this, after one year they become eligible for a retention grant of $2500, which rises to $12,000 per year after five years,” he said.
Eden-Monaro MP Mike Kelly, who was also in Batemans Bay for the consultation forum with local doctors and health professionals, said health workforce issues were a big concern for the area.
“These changes represent a significant improvement from the old GP incentive scheme and shows the Rudd Government is serious about attracting GPs to communities like Batemans Bay and encouraging them to stay,” he said.
However Southern General Practice Network CEO Kym Batt remained cautious about the ability of the incentives alone to draw new doctors to the region.
“These new measures were announced in last year’s Federal Budget and we believe they are an improvement on the current incentive program,” she said.
“It’s difficult to speculate about what attracts and keeps doctors in a community. We engage in ongoing recruitment activities to attract GPs and their families to our region and the new incentives are certainly welcome, but it must be recognised that we are competing with general practices throughout Australia during a chronic GP shortage.”
Pointing at the different levels of the funding, Moruya General Practitioner Doctor Martin Carlson said Moruya and Batemans Bay were placed at a potential disadvantage to Narooma and Tuross in attracting doctors.
“In the scheme of things overall I don’t think the money will change people’s minds about working in rural areas,” he said.
Dr Carlson sees issues such as staff shortages at hospitals as paramount.
“There is an expectation that doctors work between 80 and 90 hours a week, but people no longer want to do that, they want to work 35 to 40 hours in group practices where there is professional support,” he said.
“The grants may be the icing on the cake, but they’re not the major decision maker. I don’t think anyone would move to a rural area simply because of what is, in the greater scheme of things, a small amount of money.”
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