Comments on: Rural doctors sprung on push for more cash http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/29/rural-doctors-sprung-on-push-for-more-cash/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:37:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: john hall http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/29/rural-doctors-sprung-on-push-for-more-cash/#comment-13982 john hall Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13982 I would like to stand up for the sincerity and integrity of our current RDAA leadership. They are driven by nothing more than concern for our rural communities and their access to essential health services. I salute the personal and financial sacrifice endured by those striving to make a difference in the medico-political forum. If those rural doctors were driven by dollars they wouldn’t be where they are now. The research clearly confirms that incentives make a difference to the rural workforce. This is further evidenced by the massive wave of interest in rural medicine in QLD where rural proceduralists are now being paid specialist rates for their services. The QLD government has made a statement that rural doctors are appreciated and highly valued; it’s about time the rest of Australia followed suit. We currently have over 60 junior doctors enrolled in the rural generalist program training doctors for rural practice with many more outside the program accessing RPL toward their rural qualification. We have 16 registrars in advanced skills posts training toward procedural rural placements. . <br /><br />Anyone who currently knows the RDAA and its state counterparts is well aware of its multidisciplinary approach to health care reform. They have recently commissioned the national consensus framework for rural maternity services. This is a document that clearly spells out the importance of nurses and midwives in the provision of rural maternity services and was developed in collaboration with the college of midwives, medical colleges and the national health workforce agency. It is clearly the brief of a "medical" association to lobby for better conditions for its constituent members. Such lobbying does not reflect a lack of respect for the importance of all members of the health care team. It is the role of the nursing and allied health representative bodies to lobby on their behalf respectively. We don't see the nurses union lobbying for increases in doctors pay nor would we expect it, however we do understand that many of our nursing and allied health colleagues value doctors and our role in the delivery of rural health care.<br /><br /> I would like to stand up for the sincerity and integrity of our current RDAA leadership. They are driven by nothing more than concern for our rural communities and their access to essential health services. I salute the personal and financial sacrifice endured by those striving to make a difference in the medico-political forum. If those rural doctors were driven by dollars they wouldn’t be where they are now. The research clearly confirms that incentives make a difference to the rural workforce. This is further evidenced by the massive wave of interest in rural medicine in QLD where rural proceduralists are now being paid specialist rates for their services. The QLD government has made a statement that rural doctors are appreciated and highly valued; it’s about time the rest of Australia followed suit. We currently have over 60 junior doctors enrolled in the rural generalist program training doctors for rural practice with many more outside the program accessing RPL toward their rural qualification. We have 16 registrars in advanced skills posts training toward procedural rural placements. .

Anyone who currently knows the RDAA and its state counterparts is well aware of its multidisciplinary approach to health care reform. They have recently commissioned the national consensus framework for rural maternity services. This is a document that clearly spells out the importance of nurses and midwives in the provision of rural maternity services and was developed in collaboration with the college of midwives, medical colleges and the national health workforce agency. It is clearly the brief of a “medical” association to lobby for better conditions for its constituent members. Such lobbying does not reflect a lack of respect for the importance of all members of the health care team. It is the role of the nursing and allied health representative bodies to lobby on their behalf respectively. We don’t see the nurses union lobbying for increases in doctors pay nor would we expect it, however we do understand that many of our nursing and allied health colleagues value doctors and our role in the delivery of rural health care.

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