Wollongong's long-running Radio Doctor service says a GP shortage has left it struggling to find doctors, forcing more patients to head to the overburdened emergency department.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Radio Doctor Illawarra's general manager Frank Wallner said a "perfect storm" of COVID, influenza and a long-running strain on the health system was leaving the service with about half its requirements for doctors.
"Without doctors we can't provide our bulk billed, home visit medical service," he said.
"This will place lives at risk and increase pressure on our emergency services."
Without doctors we can't provide our bulk billed, home visit medical service. This will place lives at risk and increase pressure on our emergency services.
- Radio Doctor general manager Frank Wallner
Adding his voice to the growing calls for federal and state intervention to fix the health system, Mr Wallner said he had never seen a more challenging time.
"Like a lot of medical and emergency services, we are experiencing doctor shortages and it's happening at a period of very high demand," he said.
"We've got the double whammy of COVID continuing and a quite a severe influenza period, at a time where doctors are either choosing not to go into general practice or when a lot of the day time practices are absolutely flat out."
He said the 50 per cent shortfall of doctors available for Radio Doctor calls meant many were not able to be attended to.
"When people can't get into their daytime GP they get quite desperate and would like to use our service," he said.
"But because we are experiencing doctor shortages, just like other places, then the other main alternative is to use the emergency department. And we are all aware of the difficulties that our emergency department is dealing with at the moment as well."
For months, Illawarra residents have reported that they have been given no option but to attend the ED for less serious conditions due to the long waiting times for an appointment with their doctor.
The latest Bureau of Health Information figures from January to March, show a 34.5 per cent increase in the number of non urgent patients at emergency compared to the same time a year ago.
Mr Wallner said significant demand for doctors across the health system meant those who would ordinarily sign up to be on the Radio Doctor roster were instead needed to work more in their normal day time practices or in the emergency department.
"It's been very hard to recruit new doctors interested in working at night, on weekends and particularly under some of the terrible weather conditions we've been having," he said.
"It's a tough ask during a pandemic, and with influenza now, to get doctors to go into people's homes."
The Radio Doctor has operated in the Illawarra since 1974, and was set up as a cooperative to stop GPs from having to be on-call at all hours for their patients.
Now, it operates as a membership organisation which recruits GPs from medical practices throughout the region.
"We've written out to our members to see if they can do any extra shifts on the weekends, but I had no response to that call for doctors, and we are trying to recruit through other sources as well," he said.
"Another source for us has been overseas medical graduates, but there was a hold on those through the pandemic and that has also reduced access to those international doctors."
"We're managing as best we can, and we also use Telehealth consultations which is good for certain circumstances, but at times we have to close particular areas and say we can't handle any more calls from certain suburbs."
According to the Royal Australian College of GPs, it's getting harder and harder to convince young doctors to become a GP, with applications from people wanting to specialise in general practice falling to their lowest level in more than five years.
The college's application figures showed 1394 graduates applied to do general practice training for the 2023 intake, down from a high of 2104 applications in 2017.
Last month, UOW's Interim Dean of Medicine Professor Nicholas Glasgow told the Mercury the proportion of local graduates choosing to become GPs was also dropping each year, despite a strong focus on general practice in the course.
He said the factors behind this were complex and many, with the problem requiring a national solution. Prof Glasgow said rates of pay for GPs were lower than other medical disciplines and financial pressures to push patients through quickly were making job satisfaction difficult to achieve.
Mr Wallner said national action was also needed to fix or change access to after hours services, pointing to a 30 per cent cut to the federal government's "urgent after hours rebate" in 2018.
"We would like the new government to reinstate the rebate, because that cut was quite a significant blow," he said.
"Essentially doctors took a pay cut of over 30 per cent if they were working in those after hours visits - what other area would take that sort of cut to their pay at those strange hours?" he said.
He also wants to see more collaboration between government and non-government primary healthcare agencies, to make better use of after hours services and healthcare in the home to take pressure off ambulances and the ED.
"These after hours services and home visits are an absolutely critical part of a future where we are trying to reduce emergency department presentations," he said.
Read more of our coverage of the region's health crisis:
- How long it takes ambulances to reach your area in an emergency
- 'Where are they going to get these additional health staff from?': Ryan Park
- Wollongong nurses 'exhausted' as patients arrive sicker than ever
- The government rules making it hard to attract GPs to Wollongong
- Illawarra GPs bleeding money as wait times blow out to six weeks
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Illawarra Mercury website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.