Knuth Calls on Federal and State Governments to Fix Regional Health Issues

On Behalf Of Shane Knuth Hill Mp

MEMBER for Hill Shane Knuth has labelled access to basic health services in regional Queensland as being at a crisis point.

Mr Knuth said these services have been declining in smaller regional centres for the past decade while both levels of government continually shifted responsibility and squabbled over funding.

He said every Queenslander has the right to access basic health services in a developed nation such as Australia, regardless of their postcode.

"Last week, I attended a meeting at Mission Beach with residents about the closure of their only GP medical clinic, leaving residents with the only option of travelling to Tully or Innisfail to see a doctor," Mr Knuth said.

"Even this has become an issue as both Tully and Innisfail GP services are overflowing with long waitlists and in some cases unable to accepting new patients."

Mr Knuth said he and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter have both raised these issues in parliament.

"Personally, I put forward over a dozen questions to the health Minister alone in

2022 on various aspects of our failing health system in regional Queensland," he said.

"I also wrote to the Minister for Heath in 2020 about the impending closure of the Medical Centre in Mission Beach.

"I put forward a solution to the minister of getting a locum doctor in from Tully Hospital to help within the community, but this hasn't happened," Mr Knuth said.

Mr Knuth said he and Mr Katter are calling on both State and Federal Governments to incentivise doctors to move to regional areas and open GP practices.

"We have both lobbied for significant changes to encourage GP's to move back to smaller regional centres, including an increase to the Medicare rebate for regional GP's and speeding up visa approval for overseas GP's," Mr Knuth said.

"We have objected to the recent changes to the Distribution Priority Area (DPA) for overseas GPs to obtain full Australian accreditation, which has now been broadened to include major regional cities. This change will cause significant damage to attracting GPs to smaller regional centres.

"I am sick and tired of hearing about the state governments record spend on health in last year's budget, which is not reflected on what is actually happening on the ground in smaller regional centres."

Tully