HEALTH and medical services in regional areas were addressed in the Federal Budget on Tuesday night, with the Western District Health Service (WDHS) coming out a winner in their campaign to get an MRI scanner.

Wannon MP, Dan Tehan said he was delighted that the Federal Government invested in $66 million over four years to deregulate and expand Medicare-funded MRI scans in regional, rural, and remote areas.

“This change means rural and remote patients will benefit from reduced out-of-pocket costs for MRI scans, accessing world-class services closer to home,” he said.

Mr Tehan said he had been strongly advocating for the Medicare-funded MRI licence in this budget and the securing of a licence would enable WDHS to move forward with the delivery of an MRI scanner.

WDHS chief executive, Rohan Fitzgerald welcomed the news.

“We were thrilled to learn Dan well and truly delivered on his promise to secure an MRI licence for WDHS,” he said.

“The community support for the $2.5 million MRI has been overwhelming – in just under 12 months we’ve raised over $1 million.

“Dan got behind the project early and understood the benefits for the local community – including reducing long travel times for people living in this region.

“We were hoping to bring the project to fruition later this year and this announcement has made that a reality.”

The licence change will begin on November 1 this year and will benefit Modified Monash Model (MMM) 2–7 areas, which includes Hamilton (MM4).

Federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg also announced more training places for doctors at regional universities, with two additional University Departments of Rural Health and a Rural Clinical School – and funding for an extra 80 Commonwealth Supported (CSP) rural medical school places, but the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has warned these will be of little benefit without more rural training places for junior doctors.

RDAA president, Dr Megan Belot told The Spectator they welcomed student placements, “but what needs to follow is actually junior doctor rotations”.

“Leading up to the budget, we were calling for 400 FTE (full-time equivalent) junior doctor rotations,” she said.

“(This) would equate to actually 1600 placements, or opportunities for junior doctors to have some of their training done rurally and to understand what it's like to be a rural GP … and work in those smaller hospitals and private practices.

“The government needs to recognise that only funding medical school places will not deliver doctors to rural Australia – medical school is only the start of a doctor’s training journey.”

Also announced was a review of the MMM classification system for the purposes of allocating healthcare measures, and an annual reclassification of Distribution Priority Areas (DPAs).

The RDAA said in a statement it appreciated this was being undertaken in a considered way, but was concerned that any decision to classify urban areas as DPAs would have significant potential to draw much-needed doctors out of rural towns and into the cities.

Coleraine-Casterton Medical Clinic GP, Dr Brian Coulson said the disparity between city and regional areas with health needed to be reduced.

“Small communities across Australia deserve access to primary health care, just the same as urban communities,” he said.

“The budget underspend on rural medicine is enormous, as rural people just cannot readily access doctor visits.

“The GP is the first port of call, as is evidenced by the politicians who said, during the height of the pandemic -'just ring your GP' - none of the existing incentives have made any difference, so a serious rethink is required.”

The RDAA said it hoped the small range of measures announced for the rural medical sector in the Federal Budget would be followed by more significant announcements during the Federal Election campaign.

“Rural medicine gets another entrée … but is the main course in the oven?” the statement said.