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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-30 Daily Xml
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Rural Health Workforce

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:05): Supplementary: does the minister share the view of his federal colleague, Rowan Ramsey, that additional incentives would not attract additional doctors to regional areas?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:05): I do, because I think that people overestimate the relevance of remuneration to medical practitioners who are making the choice. When talking to a number of medical practitioners, many of the issues are not monetary. For example, I think there are a lot of young medical practitioners who find the diversity of work that a rural practice would offer very attractive. But on the other side of the equation, they are very concerned about, early in their career, putting themselves in a situation where, shall we say without the support and infrastructure of a major metropolitan hospital, there are challenges in serving in the country.

That's why I think the SAVES program, which the Marshall Liberal government is investing in again this year with hundreds of thousands of dollars to expand the network, will be an important way of supporting recruitment and retention of medical practitioners. Whether you are a doctor, a nurse or an allied health worker, you can have the latest digital communication technology to link you to specialists in Adelaide or, for that matter, anywhere in the digital telehealth network. We are already using it very effectively in areas such as psychiatric care and rehabilitation.

I can recall being in the Berri hospital and being present when a rehabilitation consultant from Modbury was able to work alongside, through the miracle of technology, the rehabilitation health worker in the Berri hospital. So I think there's a lot more to recruitment and retention of health professionals than remuneration.

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