To the Editor: We welcome your recent focus on rural and remote health. Kamien and Cameron’s editorial addressed medical workforce supply issues,1 and the accompanying article ranged across not only workforce supply issues, but also broader systemic issues, including the roles of different levels of government.2 Coincidentally, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its latest medical workforce report, which reported a rise in the number of doctors per head of population overall, particularly specialists, and particularly in urban areas, but decreased numbers of doctors in the bush, particularly in remote areas.3 Most of the media response ignored the contemporaneous nursing workforce report,4 which described a much more even geographical distribution of the nursing workforce — the largest health professional group.
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- 1 Centre for Remote Health, Alice Springs, NT.
- 2 School of Rural Health, Monash University, Bendigo, VIC.
- 3 Menzies Centre for Health Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.
- 4 Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.
- 1. Kamien M, Cameron WI. Solving the shortage of general practitioners in remote and rural Australia: a Sisyphean task [editorial]? Med J Aust 2006; 185: 652-653. <MJA full text>
- 2. Gregory AT, Armstrong RM, Van Der Weyden MB. Rural and remote health in Australia: how to avert the deepening health care drought. Med J Aust 2006; 185: 654-660. <MJA full text>
- 3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Medical labour force 2004. National health labour force series no. 38. Canberra: AIHW, 2006. (AIHW Cat. No. HWL 39.) http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/hwl/mlf04/mlf04.pdf (accessed Dec 2006).
- 4. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Nursing and midwifery labour force 2004. National health labour force series no. 37. Canberra: AIHW, 2006. (AIHW Cat. No. HWL 38.) http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10380 (accessed Dec 2006, link updated 2009).
- 5. Wakerman J, Humphreys J, Wells R, et al. A systematic review of primary health care delivery models in rural and remote Australia 1993–2006. Canberra: Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, 2006. http://www.anu.edu.au/aphcri/Domain/RuralRemote/Final_25_Wakerman.pdf (accessed Dec 2006).