A national study has found that longer rural doctor postings and more rural training positions are needed to provide regional areas with the right doctor, at the right time and in the right place.
Rural doctors, supervisors, and trainees took part in The University of Queensland-led study to identify ways to improve medical services and physician training for rural communities, which make up 30 per cent of the Australian population.
Head of UQ’s Rural Clinical School, Professor Sarah Strasser, said the findings reinforced that rural medicine is a distinct form of practice, and rural physicians and pediatricians in those communities had to do more with different resources.
“We now have data showing that rural physicians have a unique mix of general medicine and sub-specialist skills compared with metropolitan-based physicians,” Professor Sarah Strasser said.