ABC News reported today that a $12 million trial using internet video links between Melbourne specialists and patients in regional Victoria has been extended to June 2010.
Using digital technologies in medicine (source: http://www.medicine.usask.ca)
The Loddon Mallee Health Alliance, one of five rural healthcare providers funded by the Victorian State Government, has been running the Virtual Trauma and Critical Care Unit (ViTCCU) project since March 2009. The project connects metropolitan specialists to their regional counterparts via broadband and video conferencing technology. By transmitting data directly from the critically ill patient’s bedside, specialists at the Austin, Alfred, Royal Children’s and St Vincent’s hospitals in Melbourne can monitor and advise on treatment for patients hundreds of kilometres away.
The success of this project, and its continued existence, comes at a critical time for rural healthcare in Australia.
On Monday, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) wrote to Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, urging an end to the ‘10 year moratorium’ on doctors trained overseas. The rule, introduced in 1997, requires overseas trained doctors to work for at least ten years in areas with workforce shortages, usually rural and remote areas, in order to receive a Medicare provider number and access related privileges.
While the Australian Federal government has poured over $500 million into programs to improve and increase health care services and providers in rural and regional areas, there continues to be a shortage of doctors heading outside of metropolitan areas to practice. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there is nearly twice the number of primary care medical practitioners in capital cities compared with rural regions.
Warren Snowdon, the Minister for Rural and Regional Health, admitted in a recent ABC News report that “in the meantime and I think into the future, we will continue to rely on overseas-trained doctors”.
In October 2009, the Government drafted legislation to relax restrictions on the 10 year moratorium, and the amendment is expected to come into effect in April this year. This will shorten the term for doctors serving in rural areas if they are New Zealand citizens or other doctors with permanent residency who gained their first medical degree from an Australian or New Zealand university.
This has sparked fears of an exodus of doctors from regional areas back to urban centres. Dr Kim Webber, chief executive offer of Rural Health Workforce Australia, warned in a media release “our workforce in the country would be decimated” if the Government complied with the AMA’s call to abolish the 10 year moratorium completely.
Nicola Roxon, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, assured the community that the Government will keep the moratorium in place “until the AMA or other doctors groups find a way to ensure more GPs will go and work in these communities”. She has, however, also spoken of a scheme that will allow doctors to shorten the amount of time they spend in rural and regional areas if they are willing to work in more remote areas.
Providing medical care wherever it is needed (source: http://www.primarycares.org)
With an increasing physical shortage of doctors heading to rural and regional areas looming on the horizon, the Government is beginning to look at other methods of providing and maintaining adequate healthcare for all people around the country.
Apart from the extension of projects such as the VITCCU, the Federal Government announced four new projects this month under its Digital Regions Initiative relating to the provision of better regional healthcare services. This included money for online professional development courses in conjunction with TAFE NSW, distance consultation services in South Australia and e-learning systems at ambulance stations in NSW.
Digital technology may yet become the saviour and future of rural and regional healthcare in Australia.
Do you think the Australian Government should continue to have the power to place overseas trained doctors in rural locations or should doctors be allowed to choose to practice where they please?
Let us know in the comments, or tweet us @LiveTheDreamMag
2 Comments
I came across this via the twitter feed, which asked if technology is the way forward – really interesting topic. While it’s obviously got the potential to be really useful, I can’t see how this can be enough to substitute for the actual presence of health care workers. In that sense I think it’s a bit of a political dodge, to shift attention from the question of ‘how do we get doctors in regional areas’ to ‘how can we improve technology’ – all the tech in the world is not to going to change the fact is people in the regions get secondary access to healthcare. In answer to the question posed at the end of the article itself, forced placements are obviously far from ideal, but it’s better than nothing. We need a better solution, but ignoring the needs of the regions is not that solution.
Thank you Cee, you’ve raised some really good points.
I agree that technology, particularly at this stage, cannot replace doctors themselves. The ViTCCU program, for example, still requires clinicians to be present at both ends of the connection to assess and implement any suggestions for treatment. But the technology is facilitating increased access to specialist healthcare for patients who cannot or cannot afford to travel to those services. Funding for programs like these is definitely going to help, in the short term at least; even if it is only a stopgap measure until more doctors can be convinced to go or placed in areas of workforce shortage.
However, if forced placements are not ideal but we continue to rely on them, then the cycle of a shortage of permanent rural doctors will constantly be reiterated. What would you suggest as the seeds to a solution? What do you think of increasing university placements for medicine, and provide more scholarships for students willing to commit to regional work?