Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As most in this chamber would know, there is a crisis in regional areas when it comes to accessing GPs. I'm just beside myself, because for the last couple of months I've been trying to get a GP to stay in Dodgers Ferry in my electorate, and the Tasmanian Board of the Medical Board of Australia has just not got on board with this. And now we've had the sad news that we are losing this GP. He's going back home to the Netherlands because they have not approved his application. They want an extension out till March this year. His wife is pregnant, so there's a baby on the way, and there is uncertainty over what he can do. This is a guy—I won't name him—a young doctor. He has settled in Dodges Ferry and provides a great service. He is loved by the community and loved by the senior practitioner at the Dodges Ferry Medical clinic. They have been tearing their hair out trying to get his application through the Tasmanian medical board. There's no reason given for the delay. It's almost like the Tasmanian medical board just does not realise that there's a regional GP crisis going on. And this is an easy fix. This application could have been given the tick and the flick, and this guy could have stayed and continued to serve as a GP. Instead, what we're getting now is he's going to go home to the Netherlands, Dodges Ferry Medical is going to be down a GP, and they're going to have to go through the whole process again and try and get somebody else. The Tasmanian medical board needs to do better.