A $52.5-million program to improve rural GP clinics has significant flaws, according to the Rural Doctors Association (RDA) in Western Australia.
The funding, allocated in the 2014-15 federal budget, will see infrastructure grants of up to $300,000 to 175 practices across Australia.
The initiative requires GPs to match the federal funding and is aimed at encouraging doctors to expand their surgeries to take on more medical students.
RDA’s WA president Mike Eaton said too much of a contribution was required from rural practices.
“The major issue in rural Australia is providing accommodation and office space,” he said.
“The funding goes towards addressing the office space but not in a very helpful way because it requires a huge contribution on the part of the practice.
“If you go particularly to the areas that are most in need, the cost of building in those areas are absolutely enormous, and $300,000, double that to $600,000, doesn’t go very far towards expanding a practice.
“We’d like to see a better, significant contribution from the Federal Government towards those costs.
“After all, the practices are providing a service which is assisting the Federal Government with its medical services by training and by expanding the available services.”
Dr Eaton said the Government should have sought more feedback when designing the scheme.
“There wasn’t significant consultation about this because the Rural Doctors Association at this moment is making representation to the Health Minister to get some clarity about how these issues are going to be addressed,” he said.
“At the moment it’s not clear at all from the funding documents or the statements how major concerns, which are ongoing costs, are going to be looked after.”
He said while it was encouraging to see funding for rural GPs, it needed to be offered in the right form.
“There’s a significant backlog of areas that need to be addressed to see whether the finance is actually usable in the form that it’s offered,” Dr Eaton said.
“As always, we know federal bureaucracies are a bit slow to understand the realities of rural practices.”
Strong uptake of scheme predicted
The Federal Government has predicted a strong uptake of the fund.
The Member for the WA seat of O’Connor, Rick Wilson, was hopeful that practices in his area would benefit.
“I assume [the fund] will be fully subscribed,” he said.
“I’ve already had several GPs within the electorate contact me about their eligibility and I’ve had a response that certainly a couple that have contacted me certainly fit the criteria.
“I would imagine up to $600,000 would see some fairly significant upgrades to most surgeries.”
Mr Wilson said it was too soon to assess whether the funds would be sufficient for all regional areas.
“We’ll see once we have applications in and see whether it’s fully subscribed,” he said.
He said he could not give an exact timeline for funding.
“The dollar amount has been allocated in the budget so I think it’s a matter of fine-tuning the application details and then it’ll be open to people to apply as soon as possible,” Mr Wilson said.
Applications are expected to open later this year.