Regional Health Services

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about regional health. Can the minister update the council on health services in the region?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:15): I thank the honourable member for her question. The Marshall Liberal government is continuing to deliver for regional people in South Australia. Just last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Clare, located in the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network to officially launch the Rural Health Workforce Strategy. The Rural Health Workforce Strategy is a commitment of $20 million over four years to deliver and maintain sustainable health services in the country.

The investment has delivered or is delivering projects such as: a mobile clinical practice guideline app for the South Australian Ambulance Service, increased technical support for rural ambulance service officers, opportunities to expand the Ambulance Service regional volunteer recruitment, increased nurse practitioners in aged care and emergency departments, the development of a cancer service training pathway for regional pharmacists, mental health education for doctors and nurses, the allied health rural generalist pathway, telehealth equipment to support our country regional workforce and the expansion of the Road to Rural Intern Program.

The plan is just one more step in the Marshall Liberal government's efforts to address workforce shortages in our rural areas. Already, this government has more than tripled the number of medical interns in our regional local health networks, taking them from five in 2019, to 12 in 2021 and to 19 in 2022. We will also continue our commitments to training a metropolitan workforce in regional settings, with the goal that some will choose rural communities in which to make their home and build their career.

In the 2022 training year, there will be 50 metropolitan students completing a rural general practice rotation, 15 metropolitan interns completing rural emergency rotations, 17 rural GP registrars completing their advanced skill training and 2½ full-time equivalent fellowed rural GPs completing advanced skill training, including anaesthetics training, at Whyalla. The government is also committing over $550,000 to support the implementation of a regionalised Aboriginal health workforce plan and almost $400,000 in delivering a dental graduate program and dental assistant trainee programs in rural areas.

These investments by the Marshall Liberal government continue to show our support for regional South Australians in delivering quality health care closer to home. All South Australians deserve quality health care and this government is continuing to show that, for this government, regions matter.