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Minister Gillespie's interview with Tony Jones on 3AW Mornings on 8 December 2021, on medical workforce and HELP debt reduction

Read the transcript of Minister Gillespie's interview with Tony Jones on 3AW Mornings on 8 December 2021, on medical workforce and HELP debt reduction.

The Hon Dr David Gillespie MP
Former Minister for Regional Health

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TONY JONES:

Really keen on your reaction to this one as well, especially if you're in the bush. We know there's a shortage of GPs in the bush, country practice, in Regional Victoria, and certainly around the country. So, the Federal Government's come up with this idea to deal with it and to help alleviate the problem. So, if you're a doctor or a nurse practitioner, the Federal Government will wipe your university debt if you work in the bush. There are conditions, however. So on the line to explain those conditions, the policy, etcetera, is the Minister in charge, Dr David Gillespie, the Federal Minister for Regional Health. Good morning, Minister.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Good morning, Tony. Pleased to be with you.

TONY JONES:

Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on. How will this work? And what are the conditions?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Well, you can't just be a flash in the pan - move there for three months or six months and then go back to the city. It requires doctors to live and work up to 24 hours a week, like full-time work, for a period at least half their degree. And if, for instance, you are into a country area like Echuca, or Kyabram which I was yesterday, that area is classified in a one to seven scale as three and four, around that area. But it means if you go more remote, into the six and seven areas, the really remote areas, say, in the middle of the Northern Territory or up in the Kimberley's, or at the small towns on the Darling, you get a discount, so a 50 per cent discount.

So, in those remote areas, it means half your university degree time. If it was a six-year degree, and you work there for three years as a medico or a nurse practitioner - because it's not just doctors, it's nurse practitioners as well - yeah, you can retire half your debt. If you start in a country area, it'll freeze the indexation, and then in your- after your third year after you've become a doctor, you're still studying for your second degree - because you've got to get two degrees to be a full freight doctor these days - you know, you can wipe out your debt by staying there for up to the whole length of your degree. If it's a four-year degree, that means four years; if it was a six-year degree, it means you stay there six years.

It really is a big cash incentive at a critical time. Those forks in the road when young doctors are deciding whether they go down the sub-specialty route and drifting back to the cities; or staying and working and living and having a wonderful medical or nursing career in these wonderful country towns that deserve better access to doctors and nurses.

TONY JONES:

Yeah. Because in your medical life, you worked in regional areas, didn't you?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Yes, I did. Yeah. I spent over 25 years working in regional New South Wales. I trained in the big smoke, but I worked in the regions and it's a great career. You're really part of the community. You get to do a huge, complex band of work. The country GPs are doubly important, because that's the workforce that runs the country hospitals. It's not like in Melbourne, where the hospital workforce is its own little island and they don't need general practitioners. But country hospitals, and these small, you know, 20/30 bed hospitals, which I visited many with Damian Drum, the Member for Nicholls, yesterday, they are the workforce. So, if we don't have enough of them, that influences or affects the hospitals as well.

And this is really - We're not going to have to wait for them to get through a six or seven-year medical degree. So, this will kick in next year. They're already registered. They're working in a hospital. They've started a training program to be a GP, and we want them not just to be there for six months - that's why there's that longer-term commitment. And I think it will shift the dial and a lot of those young doctors with young families, they think they can get ahead.

Now, the HECS, or the HELP debt, is quite significant, it is quite significant. So, this is on top of all the other incentives that we have to attract doctors and nurses to the country…

… [inaudible] …

TONY JONES:

So do you find the situation- like, you say, you trained in the big smoke and then went to the regional areas of New South Wales and stayed there for, what, 25 years or something? Do you find that, you know, the doctors who are trained at the universities here in the cities actually just embrace that country lifestyle anyway?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

They do. But we do know if you've been trained in a country area - and we have developed a whole chain of rural medical schools, and we've got five universities now, like Melbourne Uni and Monash Uni, who have got the full med degree happening in Shepparton, Bendigo, and Mildura, for a proportion of their med students; they're tied up with La Trobe Uni, that do biomedical science first, and then they get a laneway to go into the med degree. And that's why I was with, Damien Drum, the Member Nicholls. We were there seeing the first graduates that are going into the Melbourne Uni med degree. And they'll start in January and do their whole box and dice in Shepparton.

TONY JONES:

Okay. So look, I mean, it's a great initiative, there's no doubt about that, and it's a win-win situation for the doctor and for the community. What if someone comes from Melbourne and, say, heads to Shepparton, and then after six months, just hates it? I don't know why you would, Shepparton's a lovely place - but just can't cope with the country lifestyle. What's the financial impost then?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Well, there's no change to them. They will still have to pay their HECS debt off.

TONY JONES:

Okay.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Like I said, it can't just be a flash in the pan and then head back to the big smoke. It's if you've done a four-year degree, it means four years return of service. If you go into really remote areas, like, say, the Darling or, you know, Northern Victoria, to the really small towns that are, are quite remote, well, you get a discount. So if it's a four-year degree, you got to do two years. And that's how it works.

TONY JONES:

Well, as I say, it sounds great, and you would hope there'd be a fair uptake of it. So, nice to talk to you, David.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Okay, Tony. Anytime.

TONY JONES:

Thank you. Dr David Gillespie joining us there, the Federal Minister for Regional Health.

 

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