The NSW government has established a new division for regional health just months after it apologised over the standard of services in rural and regional areas.
The Regional Health Division (RHD) will sit within the Ministry of Health and be led by a Coordinator-General for Regional Health, with local health districts reporting directly to the new division.
Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor said the government had "to do something different" and could not just "keep doing the same thing and expect different outcomes".
A former registered nurse for 20 years, Ms Taylor said the RHD was about tailoring health services for people outside the big cities.
"Rural and regional health is very different [in that] you can have facilities that are very isolated, so you have to have clinicians that are so multi-skilled."
The announcement followed a state parliamentary inquiry into health services in rural and remote areas, which led to an apology from NSW Health deputy secretary Nigel Lyons.
A 'promising start'
Member for Wagga Wagga Joe McGirr, who is also a medical doctor who has been pushing for a standalone department, said it was a "promising start".
"It's good to see the government getting into action, and not waiting for the inquiry report and moving quickly on this," Dr McGirr said.
He had questioned whether the department presiding over the current situation in regional and rural health care could fix it.
"As I've been raising this idea [to create a rural health department] the feedback I'm getting is that things are probably even grimmer than I thought they were from the health inquiry," Dr McGirr said.
"But the minister has clearly acted here, and she's certainly talking about the right things."
Immediate intervention needed
Rural and Remote Medical Service chief executive officer Mark Burdack welcomed the announcement to provide long-term structural reform to the health system but said a shortage of GPs in rural and regional NSW had created a crisis.
He said an immediate intervention, something akin to a JobKeeper-style package, was needed.
"They've been run out of business because of a lack of resourcing [but] those resources could be put in tomorrow to ensure these practices survive while these longer term solutions are put in place."
Mr Burdack said the price of a locum doctor to relieve local GPs was between $3,000 to $4,000 a day.
"That is completely unsustainable," he said.
He said the high prices were partly driven by local health districts putting up their fees to attract GPs into the hospital system.
Mr Burdack wanted NSW Health to immediately set a market price for the cost of GPs.
He added that there were overseas trained doctors waiting in line to work in regional communities, but they were struggling to get through the approval process.
