Mr RIOLI - 1999-04-27
Can the minister explain why a community the size of Port Keats only has access to a doctor 2 days a week?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for his interest in this matter. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the first question I’ve received from him and I welcome his increased participation in this House.
The matter of getting GPs into the bush is a vexed one for the whole of remote and rural Australia. I was interested on the weekend to hear that federal minister Michael Wooldridge has signed an initiative with Western Australia which will enable overseas-trained doctors to be given a provider number just for a remote geographic locality. So, it would be a restricted provider number.
The initiative is something that I would welcome. It has been a matter of how we train our young people, in my belief, because often the undergraduates who are attempting medicine are from city areas in Australia. They often are not attracted to practice medicine in the remoter areas, and they therefore look to eke out an existence in the Sydneys, Melbournes and Canberras. It is not strange, therefore, to see that in those cities there is a complaint about an oversupply of doctors and various stories about doctors driving cabs because they can’t get an existence practising medicine.
Ms Martin: What’s that got to do with Port Keats?
Mr DUNHAM: We’ve never had that problem here because we believe that there’s a shortage and we believe there’s a maldistribution of doctors across Australia. We’ve tried in a variety of ways to address that. There are rural initiatives programs from federal grants moneys to attract doctors into the bush.
We are very proud in the Territory of our initiatives with Flinders Medical School to set aside places for Territory students as a post-graduate initiative. There are 10 places set aside. The great majority of that training will take place here in the Territory, as will the other 50 or so graduates going through Flinders each year. We will find that those 50 under-graduates going through will be placed in Katherine, Alice Springs and some of our remoter areas. We are hopeful that they will take up the practise of medicine here in the Territory. We are hopeful that the 10 places we’ve set aside for Northern Territory people will see those people coming back and practising medicine here. We are also optimistic that we’ll get Aboriginal students in at the post-graduate level. I know Flinders is very keen, and this government is very keen, to see Aboriginal people trained as doctors, and would be very keen to see them practise here in the Territory on completion of their degree.
There are difficulties in getting a doctor into Port Keats and Wadeye. It’s not easy because sometimes the press that accompanies places like Numbulwar and Port Keats often, I think, is a bit biased towards the lack of comfort to live in those places, and often this detracts from our ability to recruit.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for his interest in this matter. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the first question I’ve received from him and I welcome his increased participation in this House.
The matter of getting GPs into the bush is a vexed one for the whole of remote and rural Australia. I was interested on the weekend to hear that federal minister Michael Wooldridge has signed an initiative with Western Australia which will enable overseas-trained doctors to be given a provider number just for a remote geographic locality. So, it would be a restricted provider number.
The initiative is something that I would welcome. It has been a matter of how we train our young people, in my belief, because often the undergraduates who are attempting medicine are from city areas in Australia. They often are not attracted to practice medicine in the remoter areas, and they therefore look to eke out an existence in the Sydneys, Melbournes and Canberras. It is not strange, therefore, to see that in those cities there is a complaint about an oversupply of doctors and various stories about doctors driving cabs because they can’t get an existence practising medicine.
Ms Martin: What’s that got to do with Port Keats?
Mr DUNHAM: We’ve never had that problem here because we believe that there’s a shortage and we believe there’s a maldistribution of doctors across Australia. We’ve tried in a variety of ways to address that. There are rural initiatives programs from federal grants moneys to attract doctors into the bush.
We are very proud in the Territory of our initiatives with Flinders Medical School to set aside places for Territory students as a post-graduate initiative. There are 10 places set aside. The great majority of that training will take place here in the Territory, as will the other 50 or so graduates going through Flinders each year. We will find that those 50 under-graduates going through will be placed in Katherine, Alice Springs and some of our remoter areas. We are hopeful that they will take up the practise of medicine here in the Territory. We are hopeful that the 10 places we’ve set aside for Northern Territory people will see those people coming back and practising medicine here. We are also optimistic that we’ll get Aboriginal students in at the post-graduate level. I know Flinders is very keen, and this government is very keen, to see Aboriginal people trained as doctors, and would be very keen to see them practise here in the Territory on completion of their degree.
There are difficulties in getting a doctor into Port Keats and Wadeye. It’s not easy because sometimes the press that accompanies places like Numbulwar and Port Keats often, I think, is a bit biased towards the lack of comfort to live in those places, and often this detracts from our ability to recruit.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016