PANDEMIC AND UNDERFUNDING CONTRIBUTING TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA DOCTOR SHORTAGE

BY ELIZA KLOSER

Wunan Health Clinic. Credit: Wunan Health Facebook page

Australia is experiencing a nation-wide doctor shortage, and regional and remote Western Australia are feeling the impacts.

Past president of the Australian Medical Association of WA, Dr. Andrew Miller say that there is a number of reasons the doctor shortage is particularly bad in north-western Australia, including the pandemic and underfunding.

“This idea that the pandemic is over is a fantasy and is still smashing many countries around the world including countries we have traditionally relied on to send doctors here,” Dr. Miller said.

“The pay needs to be improved because we are competing with all sorts of other countries and other states and we don’t pay our doctors in the north-west as well as we do in other parts of the country.”

“We have often relied on overseas doctors and the good will of a long-term small dedicated group of people who the systems been burning out,” he said.

The WA Country Health Service is the government body for administering health services to regional Western Australia and Dr. Miller says that staff surveys show they are lacking in support.

“The culture within WA Country Health Service is pretty poor, we know that from the many staff surveys that have been done over many years,” Dr. Miller said.

We reached out to the WA Country Health Service in response to this. 

The WACHS spokesperson responded with a statement saying they offer doctors in north-Western Australia a very competitive salary and generous incentives, relative to other states and territories in Australia.

WACHS also said that they remain committed to improving workforce morale and providing all staff with the resources and support needed to do their jobs, and that they are working on the attraction and retention strategies to get doctors to remote and rural Australia.

Listen to the full interview with Andrew Miller here: