Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, again, Senator O'Sullivan. The National Rural Health Commissioner, Professor Paul Worley, attended his first roundtable meeting last week after commencing his appointment in November last year. The commission's priority is to develop a rural generalist pathway, to recognise the complex demands of doctors working in rural communities. GPs in rural towns may have to treat diabetes, support a patient with complex mental health needs or provide an anaesthetic at the local hospital, or they may have to perform surgery or deliver a baby, in conjunction with seeing patients as part of their everyday general practice.

On Friday, I was pleased to announce a landmark agreement between the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine to develop a national framework for this medical speciality, known as the Collingrove Agreement. The commissioner has been working very closely with the two colleges to meet this point. Many doctors in the bush provide the only access to specialist medical care service, and the rural generalist pathway recognises the advanced skillset rural doctors need.