The Federal Government has introduced a policy change in a bid to make doctors more accessible to regional areas, but key bodies have warned the change will do more harm than good to the existing health crisis in rural areas.

Last week an update to the Distribution Priority Area (DPA) classification system increased the areas recognised as ‘priority’ in terms of recruitment increased to 700, meaning that practices in those areas will be able to recruit GPs from a much wider pool of doctors. 

According to Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler, the move will assist areas with chronic GP shortages. 



“These much-needed GPs will be able to move into these areas of need and get to work immediately, providing Australians with essential care close to home," Mr Butler said.

For a lot of towns in crisis however - including the Western Plains region which has seen the closure of several GP practices in the last 12 months - competition to recruit doctors will only increase.

Since the policy was raised during Labor's federal election campaign, the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has been highly critical and expressed extreme concern. 

RDAA President Dr Megan Belot said that it was disappointing to see the objections of rural doctors being ignored. 

“Many rural and remote towns have a health service because of this program, and for decades these communities have relied on Overseas Trained Doctors (OTDs) to provide care,” Dr Belot said.

Under the DPA scheme, OTDs are mandated to spend time working in the bush, a rule that has kept practices alive.

“Labor is now expanding DPAs to include large regional centres as well as some outer metro areas,” Dr Belot said. 

Essentially, towns like Brewarrina and Cobar will be placed at the same priority as Cairns and Townsville - much larger centres with more attractive access to services. 

“We are fearful for rural communities right across Australia who are now at extreme risk of losing their doctors as they take up positions closer to the cities, abandoning their rural and remote patients who will be left with no access to care close to home at all,” Dr Belot said. 

Royal Australian College of GPs President Adj. Professor Karen Price said that, while they were supportive of the Modified Monash Model (MMM) 3-7 areas (those of highest priority) being automatically classified as DPA, MMM2 joining the DPA catchment would dilute the pool of doctors, and distract from areas in more need.

“The Modified Monash Model also suffers from lagging data that doesn’t provide an accurate view of the current situation, and so it’s really a blunt instrument,” Dr Price said. 

“We need a system that can respond rapidly to changes in the community’s needs. Local services may be able to provide more current information on the local context, and help to mitigate the unintended consequences of this policy of doctors fleeing to larger regional centres, like Cairns or Shepparton,” she said.  

“I won’t be surprised if we see an immediate migration of doctors out of more rural and remote areas that need them”.

The DPA changes took effect from Thursday, 21 July.