The Alliance Chief Executive Susi Tegen spoke to ABC News about improving health care for rural, regional and remote communities, pointing out that not only is their health and their longevity shortened purely because of where they live, but they’re also having to fight to get basic services.
Ms Tegen was responding to the news that a rural council in WA South has signed a new agreement with a GP provider costing the shire $350,000 a year.
“As a person who has worked and lived in rural Australia for many years, I just think it’s outrageous,” she said.
Highlighting that the federal government has implemented some reforms and reviews, Ms Tegen said, “We are hoping that the feedback rural, remote and regional Australia has given the government will impact the strategies that they will implement over the coming year.”
“We need a National Rural Health Strategy. It has to be a compact between the federal and state governments. In addition, it needs to be across all the clinicians that work in rural, remote and regional,” Ms Tegen said.
“We’re hoping that the Rural Health Minister and the Minister for Health on a federal level, and also the state ministers are listening to the messages that are being sent to them by the populations, because we cannot continue to underfund those regions,” she emphasised.