Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the member for Calare's motion. I also acknowledge many of the comments made by the member for Macarthur. No, there are no easy fixes, but there are fixes. There are ways that we can address this. In my electorate, access to health services is one of the top three most pressing issues. We know that there is a $6.55 billion shortfall in regional and rural health spend. That means that around $848 per person is the difference between what is spent on a person living in metropolitan Australia and what is spent on a person living in rural Australia, and we most certainly feel it in the regions.

While many say, 'Yes, these are problems we've had for several years,' the changes to distribution priority areas, or DPAs, have made it infinitely worse. In South Australia, an overseas doctor can go and work in Mitcham, a very nice, well-heeled area, instead of going out to the bush, and that is what they are doing. They are living in North Adelaide and working in Elizabeth. They are living in Unley and working in Morphett Vale. They're living in Mitcham and working in Mitcham. They are not going to the bush. That is something that changed with the change of government, and that has had a profound impact on my electorate. I'm in a region. I can only imagine what it's like out in Grey or Lingiari, way out west.

In my electorate, what that's meant is that we've had closures in Meadows and Yankalilla. These are clinics that have closed. We have had historic shortages across Kangaroo Island. It has taken weeks—sometimes a month—to get in to see a doctor. On the Fleurieu and the south coast, where the median age is north of 60, the doctors have closed their books. They're saying, 'Well, we're not putting anyone on, because we can't get any doctors into the region.' I've written to the health minister about this.

So what are the solutions? What do the general practitioners tell us are the solutions? Just over a week ago, we had a general practitioners register forum in my electorate. I co-hosted this. It was the SA Future GP Forum, held in McLaren Vale. They talked about a number of issues, and they also, importantly, came up with solutions. We know that some time ago—maybe 10 or 15 years ago—around 50 per cent of medical students were looking to go into general practice. Now that's down to 10 per cent. There are a few reasons for this. One of the reasons is the cost difference. If you are a registrar and you want to go down the GP pathway, you have a shortfall of about $30,000 every year in costs. If you stay in the hospital and work as a registrar in a hospital setting, you get access to study leave and paternity leave, as well as that difference in income. That is a real barrier to people who want to be GPs going and doing the study to become GPs. So we need to address that. That funding was cut in 2014, and it hasn't been brought back since then. That, I think, has had a huge impact.

The other issue is that we haven't lifted Commonwealth supported places to study medicine in pretty much a decade. Again, the number was frozen in 2014 and governments of both persuasions have not lifted it. We need to seriously lift the number of medical places, because our population has grown substantially but we've only seen very marginal increases. I think that in the last couple of years there have been maybe 100 extra places across the nation to study medicine, while we have an ageing population. These are two very simple policy matters that are contained and can be addressed. Those things could change One sits in education and one sits with the health minister.

So I support the member for Calare's motion in saying that this is a critical issue. If, as people do in some parts of my electorate, you live an hour or an hour and a quarter from the city and you can't get in to see a GP, or you move to the area and the GP says, 'We're not even going to add you to our books,' that is a very serious issue. The brunt of the impact of this is in regional Australia. It's not in Mitcham, Morphett Vale or Elizabeth. This is in the regions, and the regions must have this addressed.

See this speech in context