The Federal Government has announced changes to the Bonded Medical Placement Program, opening up the choice of rural work locations for doctors.
The Assistant Minister for Health Fiona Nash says the key principle is to get the right doctors with the right skills in the right places.
She says the first step will be to update the data used to determine the ‘districts of workforce shortage’ (DWS), using the latest information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“There was a mismatch caused by the old data.
“There was the same incentive payment in place for a doctor if they were going to a big place like Wagga with 60,000 people, compared to a town like like Gundagai with 2,000 people.
“So this will create more certainty and we’ll retain some flexibility as well.”
The system will now take population into account. It has been welcomed by Dr Ian Kamerman, president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia.
He says the system will lsoe some anomalies created by the way ‘districts of workforce shortage’ were previously identified.
“The system broke down in the past because doctors would be coming from rural areas, they’d be bonded to go to a district of workforce shortage, but then the small town, the communities they wanted to go back to, were no longer DWS and they were forced to go to areas like outer metropolitan or larger regional centres.”
Other changes announced by Senator Nash include a new classification system for rural towns, which determines whether they get access to special support.
“We’ve made some structural changes to what’s called the modified Monash model.
“The sector has been saying to me there needs to be consultation before we make any changes to where those incentive payments currently go.”
The Federal Government has set up an expert panel to review some key issues in the area of rural health, including the Bonded Medical Placement Program.
The minister says the panel will also consider a proposal for junior doctors to spend some time with general practitioners.
“I’ve asked [the panel] to look at the value of junior doctor exposure to rural practice.”
Dr Kamerman is happy with the panel, which he says will work out the logistics of the changes.
“We’ve been asking for this modified Monash model for quite a while. It needs to be put in place and this is just about the finer detail.”