Labor Government delivers more medical specialists for regional South Australia

Regional South Australia now has greater access to medical specialist services, thanks to the Malinauskas Government’s successful delivery of a $10 million election commitment.

Delivering 10 medical specialists for country areas with critical needs was part of Labor’s broader commitment to recruit an additional 100 doctors over four years.

Since coming to office, the State Government has gone well beyond that target, recruiting more than 640 doctors over and above attrition – nearly six and a half times greater than what the Government committed to – with 317 recruited in the last year alone.

The Malinauskas Government has so far recruited 10.37 full-time-equivalent (FTE) specialist doctors to treat people living in regional and remote areas. These specialists are providing regular clinics and services including virtual clinics in all six regional Local Health Networks (LHNs) providing care closer to home.

A highlight is the recruitment of psychiatrists who are providing significant benefits to regional LHNs, improving mental health services at Victor Harbor and reducing wait times at Port Pirie.

Four part-time cardiologists came on board earlier this year, three of whom were funded as part of our election commitment funding. All four are skilled in responding to the three main areas of chest pain, arrhythmia and heart failure and are supporting outreach consulting, rapid-access telehealth clinics and virtual advisory specialist services to General Practitioners.

Their successful recruitment has expanded the Rural Support Service’s virtual cardiology clinic, the Integrated Cardiovascular Clinical Network SA (iCCnet), which was founded in 2001 by the late Dr Phil Tideman.

Meanwhile, additional paediatricians have had a major impact on delivering services in areas such as Port Lincoln, where increased access to paediatric services has been provided to Eyre Peninsula communities.

Regional cancer services have been boosted through the recruitment of additional oncologists, including a new cancer clinic established at Gawler and additional cancer clinics at Port Lincoln, Port Pirie and the Riverland General Hospital over the last two years.

Access to essential end-of-life care has also been improved in the Riverland Mallee Coorong, Yorke and Northern, and Eyre and Far North LHNs, thanks to additional palliative care consultants.

Other medical specialists recruited to service regional areas include anaesthetists, an orthopaedic surgeon and general, emergency medicine and respiratory physicians.

Many of these specialists are also providing crucial advice to rural general practitioners and regional healthcare staff and, in some areas, are supporting the development of local training pathways and building clinical trial capabilities in regional South Australia.

To ensure the most effective prioritisation of which additional specialists should be recruited and for where, the State Government was informed by the Rural Support Service’s Rural Workforce ‘Think Tank’ event, held in late 2022.

The Rural Workforce ‘Think Tank’ brought together about 150 representatives, including rural and metropolitan clinicians, LHN decision-makers and representatives from regional healthcare advocacy groups, who provided the Government with advice on critical areas of need in different parts of regional South Australia.

Out of that, as well as regular stakeholder consultation since then, regional LHNs have been empowered to meet their communities’ health needs more effectively.

Comments

Attributable to Chris Picton

I’m delighted that regional communities are now benefiting from the hard work that has been done across all six regional local health networks to get these medical specialist roles in place.

This is an important part of our commitment to providing more services closer to home for people across South Australia.

Our Government will continue to improve access to specialist services and invest in regional healthcare, helping rural and remote South Australians to access the medical treatment they need, closer to home.

Attributable to Dr Caroline Phegan, Executive Director of Medical Services, Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network

Funding from the Election Commitment has supported the expansion of our community palliative care services across the entire Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network.

It has also supported rural generalists to train in palliative care as their advanced skill, further embedding palliative care in the community, and providing services close to home.

Attributable to Debbie Martin, Executive Director Rural Support Service

The Rural Support Service has worked closely with the senior medical services leads in each regional LHN to identify the specialist positions required and utilise the additional funding in the most effective way.

Country residents and regional general practitioners are now able to receive care and work with many more experienced medical specialists across a range of specialties.