Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, during question time, the Minister for Health and Ageing was asked a question relating to the current doctor shortage that Australia faces. This brought me to once again reflect on the situation in my own electorate.

Last November, I addressed this parliament on the current medical crisis caused by the shortage of GPs. I spoke about how this shortage was having a detrimental impact on the health of communities within Adelaide. I particularly spoke about the Nailsworth surgery, which, in 2003, lost two practising GPs and has been unable to attract replacement practitioners due to the shortage.

After years of unsuccessfully searching for replacement doctors, the Nailsworth surgery finally sourced a doctor who was willing and enthusiastic to join the surgery. I outlined how the surgery, desperate and overworked, was denied the opportunity of employing this doctor under the government’s Health Insurance Act, as the doctor in question, Dr Tedders, was trained overseas and had completed only six years of rural service and was therefore unable to attract the necessary provider number.

In recognising the surgery’s plight, I supported their application for an exemption under section 19AB of the Health Insurance Act to allow the doctor to join the surgery. I personally wrote to the minister for health, appealing for an exemption to be granted, and in parliament I called on Minister Abbott to grant an exemption to a surgery that is facing possible closure. Unfortunately, just like the pleas and petitions this government received from the communities in and around Nailsworth, my pleas have also fallen on deaf ears. It is just not good enough. The people of Adelaide want to know when the government will be willing to work on serious, long-term solutions designed to address the shortage of GPs and ease the pressure.

Currently, we have a government whose medical policies and guidelines simply do not match what is happening in our communities. Whilst Nailsworth is repeatedly told that it is not ‘an area of shortage’, it has currently reached full capacity and can no longer accept new patients. The two remaining doctors face immense pressure, as they are left to service approximately 7,000 to 8,000 patients and can rarely take holidays due to the problems of locating replacement GPs.

Early cuts to medical training places have led to a situation where we are not self-sufficient in supplying the demand for health professionals. We are relying on overseas trained doctors who are only able to access provider numbers in restricted areas and at restricted times. Perplexingly, Dr Tedders has been granted a provider number to work after hours and in two local nursing homes, but this alone does not meet the needs of the communities surrounding Nailsworth.

There is a serious shortage of GPs, and our inner and outer metropolitan communities are also feeling it. Nailsworth is just one of many surgeries experiencing the problems caused by a short-sighted government. The government should have our country’s health high on its list of priorities. Instead, it is happy to deny Australians access to adequate GP services. I again call on the government and the minister for health to act for the Nailsworth surgery and for the people in the communities in my electorate of Adelaide.