A pilot program launching today in Outback Queensland will deliver high-quality, confidential healthcare consultations to rural and remote health practitioners in an effort to preserve the physical and mental wellbeing of the workforce on whom the community's health rests.
Dr Michael Rice, Chair of Rural Doctors Foundation, says the program was developed through research and listening to rural and remote health practitioners across Australia.
"The GPs4RuralDocs program is by rural doctors for rural doctors. The program's design has been shaped by experts in doctors' health and with guidance from doctors serving in rural communities at every stage."
CEO of Rural Doctors Foundation, Fran Avon, says the rural health workforce, including doctors, nurses and allied health workers, experience the same challenges accessing healthcare as their patients do –
"For some, they might be the only doctor or one of only a few medical professionals in town. Of the more than 120 rural and remote health practitioners we surveyed, 42% said they needed to travel out of town, with 20% travelling more than 800 km to receive independent and confidential healthcare."
"Rural health practitioners work long hours, often across multiple roles, to meet community needs. As a result, these pressures are overtaking self-care health behaviours such as taking leave and seeking their own healthcare services, leading to burnout, reducing hours, leaving practice and early retirement," she says.
GPs4RuralDocs program will combine face-to-face visits and telehealth consultations to support health workers' physical and mental health as an upstream, preventative strategy to retain the critical rural and remote health workforce that is persistently in shortage across Australia.
Dr John Douyere, Rural Generalist and Medical Director at the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway, who is trained in doctor-to-doctor care and mental health, will fly in to deliver the pilot service to Quilpie, Charleville and Cunnamulla.
"Having lived and worked in Longreach for 23 years, I understand the challenges of accessing healthcare for rural health practitioners," Dr Douyere says.
"Are you going to spend significant time and energy to go somewhere else to seek care, or are you going to seek care from colleagues? Seeking healthcare from colleagues brings a whole set of difficulties if you go that way."
Dr Michael Rice says it might be surprising to people outside the medical field, but health practitioners shouldn't be trying to diagnose and treat themselves or their colleagues –
"All health providers need privacy and personalised care, just the same care that we deliver to our own patients. Proper care means more than just a script or just a referral, and keeping our rural colleagues physically and mentally well means they shouldn't be DIY doctors," Dr Rice says.
He believes the program's impact will be felt at an individual level and by the Quilpie, Charleville and Cunnamulla communities as a whole.
All three communities are classified under the Modified Monash Model as MM7 very remote. Survey respondents highlighted that resources were shared between GP services and remote hospitals, meaning there were no independent options for their own healthcare.
Charleville and Cunnamulla were recently inundated by floods that affected south-west Queensland, destroying homes and isolating residents with road closures. Health practitioners take on an extra burden during natural disasters to meet community health needs, but these events are immensely stressful and take a toll.
"Rural Doctors Foundation is funding the pilot, but to reach and retain critical rural and remote healthcare workers across Australia, we need partners", says CEO Fran Avon.
Avon emphasises, "Without healthy health workers, we cannot have healthy communities."
