“Better health in the bush”: why we urgently need a national rural and remote health strategy

What are the problems in rural health service delivery and what can we do about them?

For decades, the Australian Government has been wrestling with how to “fix the rural health problem”. Long‐standing problems of workforce shortages and maldistribution, difficulties with recruitment and retention, and inadequate access to, and availability of, appropriate services persist.1 These contribute to the poor health status of many non‐metropolitan Australians, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, despite the fact that governments spend millions of dollars annually on specific rural and remote health programs.2