FORMER Australian Medical Association president and Altona North doctor Mukesh Haikerwal believes Hobsons Bay’s GP crisis will only worsen unless the federal government reinstates the area’s priority status.
The withdrawal of the District of Workforce Shortage (DWS) classification west of Millers Road to outer Geelong has outraged the region’s GPs and sparked a campaign, led by Hobsons Bay Council, calling on Health Minister Tanya Plibersek to reinstate the classification.
A doctor-to-population ratio and Medicare billing data are used by the government to determine DWS regions, in which funding applications can be made to employ overseas-trained doctors.
Areas receive the classification if they fall below the national average for the provision of medical services, but it can also be assigned to individual practices.
Overseas-trained doctors wanting to work in Australia are compelled, when applying for Medicare rebate eligibility, to work in a designated DWS.
Westgate General Practice Network chairman and Hobsons Bay councillor Bill Tehan said many clinics across the municipality had hit capacity and “closed their books” to new clients.
“There’s a number of factors at play, but it’s been clear for years that we have a GP shortage,” he said. “This shortage will only become greater unless we do something now. Nothing has changed to support the loss of DWS status; it doesn’t make sense. If we can’t recruit overseas doctors to the region, we’ll have massive problems and it will only exacerbate the situation. Hobsons Bay has a number of clinics with one or two GPs and they’re already overworked and struggling to attract support; they may not survive.”
On May 8, Hobsons Bay Council voted to work with the region’s health providers to lobby Ms Plibersek and also support an application by the Westgate Health Co-operative to designate a health clinic nearing completion at Laverton Community Hub as having DWS status.
As part of its campaign, the council will also request a change to DWS, to exclude GPs working within hospital networks, which it believes “will more accurately reflect the availability of the number of GPs to the community”.
With the clinic at the Laverton hub to include up to eight GPs, the co-operative fears the change will significantly affect its ability to attract recruits.
Dr Haikerwal, who works as a GP at Circle Surgery in Altona North, said attracting GPs to the west was still a major challenge.
“The population of Hobsons Bay is getting older and requiring more medical services, so it’s very hard to understand why one avenue of recruiting GPs would be removed,” he said. “By taking away DWS status, it removes any hope some clinics have of attracting GPs.
“They’re already working long hours and if they can’t cope, they might decide to just close their doors.”
