Doctor surgery reception staff are hiding and crying during shifts after copping abuse from patients frustrated by long waits for appointments, a regional GP says.
Dr Alam Yoosuff, who is based in Finley on the New South Wales-Victorian border, said many staff had been threatened or sworn and yelled at.
"It's pretty nasty," he said.
Dr Yoosuff said the abuse often came from clients ringing to organise appointments, negotiate billings or trying to gain priority access.
"They want things done straight away or the way they like."
'They get very nasty'
At Dr Yoosuff's practice wait times for non-urgent cases can be up to a fortnight.
But at some other clinics in town, wait times are as much as four to six weeks.
"So when people ... don't get an appointment to see their GP within three weeks, it's fair enough, they're concerned," he said.
"But then they get very nasty at reception staff, but they've got nothing to do with it."
While Dr Yoosuff acknowledged long wait times were frustrating, he said patients' anger was misdirected.
"It is our job to look after our people," he said.
GP blames doctor distribution problem
Dr Yoosuff said the vast majority of rural and remote doctor vacancies were usually filled by international medical graduates.
But pandemic lockdowns and delays to exams, assessments and applications had stalled the process.
This week, Dr Yoosuff travelled 300 kilometres to the regional NSW town of Temora, where he spoke to 20 final-year medical students, encouraging them to become GPs in regional areas.
He said of the almost 3,000 medical students exiting university in Australia, about 40 per cent wanted to pursue general practice.
But by the end of their first two years in the hospital, that figure dropped to just 14 per cent.
"General practice is the most important healthcare demand we have at this point in time in this country.
"This country has a doctor distribution problem, not a doctor shortage problem."
