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The Forum > Article Comments > Rural health workforce audit 'screams' for health reforms > Comments

Rural health workforce audit 'screams' for health reforms : Comments

By Ged Kearney, published 5/6/2008

People living in rural and remote Australia face huge difficulties in accessing comprehensive health care.

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I would like to heartily endorse Ged Kearney’s remarks.

After six decades of near flawless health, I suffered a bout of MRSA brought on by an operation on a broken leg. I live in a major city in the Central West of NSW. That all started two years ago; I am re-entering normal life again this week.

In a remarkably short amount of time I discovered:-
-the amount of treatment for which I had to travel to Sydney
-the major role local nurses played in my recovery process.

A role that would only be increased by greater use and support of nurse practitioners and the development of patient centred care based on a multidisciplinary approach. My illness showed me how outdated my concept of nursing was!
Bathurst NSW
Posted by ozscrnwriter, Thursday, 5 June 2008 9:57:51 AM
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Wake up. It is not rational to outline plans for better delivery of health care to remote regions without building in, from the first paragraph, ways to establish better education and a few of the other necessities for life in the bush, like librarians and agriculturalists and mechanics. Didn't you see the report on the costs to build new houses in an indigenous community in NT? Healthcare lobbyists can scream all they like, but anything short of a holistic approach to the maintenance of life in the bush will fail.
Posted by gavrilo, Thursday, 5 June 2008 10:07:51 AM
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gavrilo,

One could hardly call the Central Coast [NSW] the "Bush". Many people have left Sydney to live between Gosford and Nelson Bay on purpose.

Where there are problems in towns smaller than the size of say Inverell [12,000]. People, especially older people, living these towns wont travel two or three hours to a regional centre with better facilities, say Tamworth or Armidale. In Sydney, many a CBD worker travels three hours to just to-and-from work, e.g., Glenbrook. The economy of these small towns is not self-sustaining, so, wider Australia has to pay for them.

That said, there is a need for more high-tech equipment, such as PET scanners, even if costs us one or two F-35s.
Posted by Oliver, Thursday, 5 June 2008 7:40:30 PM
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So do people in the Arctic and Antarctica. Honestly, comprehensive health care in rural areas? Are you kidding?
Posted by Steel, Thursday, 5 June 2008 10:53:05 PM
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Heath Medical Industry Needs a Basic Shake-Up. Is there no client focus at a community level within this science?

Doctors, Nurses and Social Workers with their elite cultural skills, degree of economic independence, personal autonomy and selective handle on human compassion need to take a tradesmen’s look at the bigger picture.

As one of the well paid (compared to others) professions in the universe, today’s headline calls for even more services to be allocated for Doctors working in remote areas... so desperate rural communities can have more of a chance to keep them there.

Today we are told doctors do not want to live in remote rural areas because they feel they need more money and feel isolated when living in rural locations. That the government ought to pay for them and their families to have four trips away... per year, so they don't feel so cut-off or alone.

Where do they get off?

It is as if this profession is blackmailing the world.

It is as if the medical industry itself has forgotten (in the developed world…) their professional creed and expect us the people of community to prop them even higher than they already stand. Do they have no courage?

What erks me most is the ways their own headlines as a focus on knowledge is so “self-serving”.

If this industry applied this knowledge of what it means to be truly cut-off or isolated, in the reality of Health Reform community needs… i.e.: work to integrate health services with community services… by working to counter-act “social drift”, perhaps more could be achieved with the socio-economic funding dollar to help make the national community a better – culturally warmer place to live… for everyone.

I want the medical profession to look harder at itself. The fact that “social isolation” has today become an issue for doctors means maybe we could ask now for a broader approach.

Community Engagement is a bigger issue than ever before… it needs the medical profession without its mental health projections and pills, to see the factualness.

http://www.miacat.com/
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Posted by miacat, Saturday, 7 June 2008 1:29:14 PM
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A quarter of a century ago I've read in the introduction to book the words of prof Beer who opened an international conference of medical doctors many decades ago with those words: my fellow doctors, it's remarkable that many patients come back to health after our advices.

What's different today? Nothing. Medical doctors do not learn nutrition, they do not learn to prevent illness but to treat it, yet they are the God and master over you. Naturopaths do learn nutrition and health maintenance and they are legally treated as witches. Larger and larger proprtion of patients go to see them. The government knows what is good for you therefore keeps naturopaths away from legal list of health practitioners and therefore government does not allow a truly open debate based on scientific knowledge to compare the two sides. Maybe something would be revealed what you should not know? Do I say that naturopaths should replace medical doctors? If I said so, I would be as closed minded as those who keep monopoly of medical doctors. Make is level plane and debate on scientific basis and/or to let patients to decide which modality for their illness or prevention is better and/or cheaper, more effective. Are you allowed to make your choice or choice was already made for you?

In this voluntary scheme the “angel” tells us that we actually must support the system regardless if we use it or not. We must care for those who chose to drink lots and lots of alcohol and consume our money. Here I want to point inherent unfairness of the system and in general this favors irresponsibility for own health.

Current system exploit/create situation - there is no money in health but plenty in sickness. Are you surprised that doctors are champions in maintaining illness, not in preventing?
If objections are that naturopaths should have better/higher education, I first vote for it, but not to exclude them on your behalf, be free and make your own informed choice.
Posted by mmistrz, Friday, 13 June 2008 10:30:57 AM
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