7 October 2024
With the Queensland state election looming, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has called on political parties to do more to attract, retain and support specialists, particularly in rural areas.
A shortage of specialist doctors in Queensland is causing significant wait lists for things such as ADHD diagnoses and hours-long round trips for patients in rural areas to get to appointments, putting access to quality healthcare at risk.
The Chair of the RACP’s Queensland Committee, Professor Tony Rahman, said that healthcare worker recruitment and retention must be priorities for the next Queensland government.
“Burnout is a huge issue for all healthcare workers including physicians, and currently many of Queensland’s hospitals are struggling to meet demand – they simply don’t have enough physicians to meet patients’ needs,” Professor Rahman said.
“Not only does this make it harder to meet increasing patient needs, but it’s impacting doctors’ wellbeing and it doesn’t make it an attractive profession for the next generation of job seekers.
“Queensland needs paediatricians to assess and diagnose increasing presentations of ADHD, for example. We need diabetes specialists and cardiologists to care for more people with lifestyle-related illnesses, and geriatric medicine specialists to care for our ageing population.”
With workforce shortages, particularly in regional and rural parts of the state, the RACP is calling on political parties to incentivise specialists to train and work outside of major cities.
“We can do this in a number of ways. For one, the Government should fund more specialist training places in regional and remote areas,” Professor Rahman said.
“They could provide incentives including childcare, rent support, and moving assistance, as well as support overseas-trained medical specialists to settle into their new communities, making them more likely to stay longer-term.
“They also need to invest in growing local medical specialist workforces, including increasing the number of First Nations physicians, who can best provide culturally appropriate care for their communities.”
“Above all, the government in office after the election must properly fund our hospitals and other public health services. Underfunded, overstretched healthcare services are a recipe for doctor burnout.
"All physicians want to provide world class service to Queensland patients, but doctors cannot provide the best care for patients if the system they work in is not caring for them.”
View the RACP 2024 Queensland election statement here.