SANFORD clinic surgeon, allina clinic manager and buffalo farmer were named in a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIFW) that found all of the top-performing doctors in the country had a history of high or average rates of hospitalisations and deaths.
Dr Tony Maitland, chief executive of the AIFW, said the report was a “wake-up call” for the profession and a wake-up for those who had been overlooked in the past.
Dr Maitlands report also highlighted the importance of training and mentoring doctors.
“We have been calling on the profession for some time to change the way it is perceived in Australia,” he said.
“The report is an important first step in that direction.”
We want to get to the point where everyone is being treated as equals.
It is not just Sydney that is experiencing an influx of doctors in these areas, he said, but the number of doctors was “significantly higher” than what had been predicted by the country’s medical profession. “
This shows that there is a strong need for a national network of orthopedics surgeons and that is what this is about,” Dr Mitterland said.
It is not just Sydney that is experiencing an influx of doctors in these areas, he said, but the number of doctors was “significantly higher” than what had been predicted by the country’s medical profession.
“Australia’s population is increasing but the proportion of doctors is growing more slowly than that,” Dr Kavanagh said.
Dr Kavanaagh said the number had been “signally improved” in recent years.
“In some regions there’s been a significant increase in numbers, but in others it’s been below that,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“There’s been some improvement in terms of quality of care but we’ve got a long way to go to meet the needs of the nation.”
A report by Australia’s Department of Health (DOH) last year estimated that in 2020 there would be 8,000 more orthopedically-trained doctors than there were in the year 2000.
Dr Tanya Masek, the head of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Western Sydney, said more doctors needed to be trained in different areas.
“I don’t think the orthopeds are the only area where we need to train more,” she said.
But Dr Masec said more needs to be done to recruit and retain skilled doctors.
The report also found some of the countrys top doctors had high rates of non-urgent and emergency conditions.
The findings come as more doctors are working in rural and remote areas, including in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and the Northern Rivers region.
“As long as people in those areas are still living in urban centres, that is a very vulnerable population,” Dr Tana said.
She said more people were “being pushed to work more hours” and that some rural areas had been experiencing high unemployment rates.
“If you’re an emergency surgeon in a rural area, you may be getting paid more, but you may not be getting the benefits of being able to train and train well.”
