With the 2023-2024 Budget announcement looming, the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) urgently calls on the Federal Government to commit to addressing the gross underfunding of primary healthcare in rural, remote, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. 

The College says vastly improved access to primary care for people living outside the urban footprint should be the government’s highest priority. 

“It’s not complicated,” ACRRM President Dr Dan Halliday says. 

“Better access improves health outcomes, benefits communities, and avoids higher treatment costs when conditions escalate. 

“This budget presents an opportunity for the Federal Government to demonstrate its commitment to building strong and sustainable rural communities and healthcare services.  

“As a specialist College committed to having the right doctors in the right places with the right skills, we advocate for bespoke funding for rural and remote general practice and increased investment in the National Rural Generalist Pathway. 

“It’s obvious that rural and remote general practice across Australia is facing a funding crisis and is disproportionately affected. “Urban practices, by comparison, are better placed to generate income from volume, take advantage of quicker consults and niche services, and absorb the cost of complex patients. 

“The pressure to bulk bill is far greater in rural and remote locations due to lower socio-economic profiles. “There is also less opportunity for higher gap payments outside the urban footprint.  

“Rural and remote communities deserve better. And to give them better, they urgently need access to a workforce of Rural Generalists who have the specialist skills to meet their needs,” Dr Halliday adds. 

In its pre-budget submission, the College calls for the following key initiatives: 

  • Increase Medicare funding for rural and remote General Practice by doubling the Medicare Rural Bulk Billing incentive for MMM 3-7 as a component of broader practice funding reform 
  • Establish designated funding pools to support innovative, flexible, and place-based service models which enable bespoke solutions tailored to the unique needs and circumstances of rural and remote communities  
  • Increase funding for the Strengthening Medicare General Practice Grants Program to provide an additional $140 million for distribution to general practices in RA 3-7, and increase the available funding for each rural or remote practice to $100,000  
  • Extend rural specific Medicare Benefits scheme rebates to better reflect practice costs and complexity in rural and remote areas and ensure that patients are not financially disadvantaged in seeking primary care services  
  • Introduce blended funding models with rural loading which incentivises delivery of in-person services and provision of facilities based in remote and remote contexts
  • Introduce funding mechanisms which support the Rural Generalist model of practice as a key policy lever in providing primary care and services which meet community need in a sustainable and cost-effective manner. 

“The ACRRM pre-budget submission not only presents the initiatives we want addressed when the Budget is handed down, it provides recommendations and solutions,” Dr Halliday says. 

ACRRM’s pre-budget submission is available here.

ENDS