GPs slam grant

By Ed Merrison
A LOCAL GP association has been left unimpressed by a federal budget boost to relocation-incentive grants, instead pressing for a dramatic change in the way the health needs in the Hills are classified.
La Trobe MP Jason Wood said last week he was pleased to announce an increase in grants for doctors joining an existing practice in outer metropolitan areas from $20,000 to $30,000, while grants for establishing a new practice rose from $30,000 to $40,000.
But Eastern Ranges GP Association chief executive Kristin Michaels said in the three years since the incentives had been in place, not a single GP had applied for the funds.
“I have no reaction (to the increases) at all because they will make absolutely no difference at all, I can guarantee.
“We’ve had not a single doctor come into the area with the existing measures, so upping it won’t make a difference,” she said.
Ms Michaels’s comments came just two weeks after Belgrave Health Care owner Dr Steve McKernan closed the doors on his practice to join a new 10-doctor medical centre in Narre Warren, sparking fresh fears about the region’s GP shortage.
Emerald Medical Centre owner Dr George Somers, who is conducting research on the doctor shortage for Monash University, said a more effective solution than the incentive grants would be to make the Hills eligible for the level of support afforded to rural areas.
“What the Government needs to do is recognise the Hills as being rural and isolated, and recognise the difficulties associated with practicing in an isolated area,” he said.
Ms Michaels backed Dr Somers’ suggestion, saying the region’s current Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area (RRMA) 1 classification rating did not reflect the socio-economic conditions of Hills residents, and ignored other factors such as the lack of public transport and distance from hospitals.
“At the moment the Hills have a capital city classification, the same as Toorak and Richmond, which is a significant problem.
“You can’t stand on the main street of Monbulk or Belgrave and tell me it’s like being in Richmond,” she said.
Ms Michaels said the Yarra Valley, which fought to have its RRMA classification downgraded from a category 1 to a category 5 two years ago, proved a change in the rating could deliver results.
Since its reclassification, the Yarra Valley has seen four overseas-trained doctors move into an area containing eight practices, ‘a significant upping of the workforce’, according to Ms Michaels.
“We now have in that area the right number of GPs for the population for the first time in 10 to 15 years,” she said.
According to Ms Michaels, the change meant practices could employ overseas-trained doctors who would normally only be allowed to go to rural areas, as well as giving access to bonus payments and higher rebates than were applicable to RRMA 1 practices.
“We know it works and we know it works in this area specifically.
“It’s a very simple process: The (Health) Minister simply needs to change the rating.
“He did it for us in the Yarra Valley; why can’t he do it again?” she said.
Mr Wood, who has written to Mr Abbott seeking details of Federal programs that might help attract doctors to the La Trobe electorate, is due to meet with the Eastern Ranges GP Association tomorrow (Wednesday).
“If they prove to me that this is the way forward – and to me it sounds logical – then I’ll obviously support that,” he said.