The Federal government is introducing an attempt to incentivise doctors coming to the bush once and for all, proposing legislation that will wipe university loans if they work in a rural or remote area.

It’s the latest in a years-long journey of incentives that, so far, haven’t made much of a dent in the dire shortage of doctors. 

Under the proposed legislation, a doctor or nurse practitioner who lives and works in remote parts of Australia will have their HECS/HELP completely or partially debt wiped - depending on the length of their stint in the country. 

The incentive expects to supply 850 more doctors and nurse practitioners to the rural and remote workforce each year. 

Incentives are no new ploy from the Government, including the nationwide Workforce Incentive Program, but the issue has clearly remained. 

It poses the question of what students care about when it comes to their jobs, if abundant salaries and provided housing hasn’t done the job. 

UNSW 21-year old medical student Kate Stacey said that in her cohort, most of the people discussing moving to the bush are already from there. 

“We do have students who are bonded which means you have to go and work regionally, but usually that definition of regional is the Central Coast or Newcastle,” Ms Stacey said. 

While incentives offer a draw card, Ms Stacey said on top of fears of losing a social aspect of their life, students are worried a lack of resources could hinder their career. 

“Metro students are quite happy to go rural for studying because teaching is better because it’s smaller. When they finish they want to go back to the city though because if you want to do a specialty, the resources aren’t there to get trained particularly well,” she said. 

After graduating, Ms Stacey said she would be eager to look into rural work but also worries about being isolated when inexperienced. 

“Unless you’re quite well trained, you don’t want to be out of your depth in Lightning Ridge or Yulara or somewhere,” she said. 

“I wouldn’t want to go there unless I’d had a decent amount of training and emergency training if you don’t know who else is around that’s qualified.”

In addition, HELP debt, like for many students, isn’t something she’s overly concerned about. 

The legislation would mean that a doctor or nurse practitioner who lives and works in: 

• A remote or very remote town for a time period of half the length of their course would have their entire HELP debt wiped. 
• A large, medium or small rural town for a time period equal to the whole length of their course would have their entire HELP debt wiped. 
• An eligible place for a period of time equivalent to half the time required is eligible to half the applicable debt reduction. 

If the plan sounds familiar, it's because the idea was announced in December last year by the former government, however it never came to fruition, leaving scepticism of whether this will ever get off the ground. 

A spokesperson of the NSW Rural Doctors Network told the Sydney Morning Herald in July this year that there are fewer than 200 general practitioner proceduralists working in rural NSW, with concerns it’ll dwindle to less than 100 within the decade.