The Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) says getting nurses to perform more procedures may not help smaller country practices.
A report by think tank The Grattan Institute says nurses could sedate patients for simple procedures and carry out endoscopies while assistants could free up nurses’ time by bathing and feeding patients.
RDAQ president Sue Masel says it could work in larger country facilities but it would not be practical everywhere.
“Certainly in medium to larger facilities where there are multiple nurses on a shift,” she said.
“It would be difficult to imagine how you would make a cost saving in a really small facility where there might only be one or two nurses per shift and for safety reasons that staffing couldn’t be allowed to drop below that level of skill.
“At rural operating theatres you don’t tend to have multiple operating theatres on the go at the same time, one where nurses are providing sedation and which could be supervised by doctors next-door undergoing at an anaesthetist level.
“I think that that would be potentially dangerous.”
Source: ABC