Charlotte Varcoe
ONE general practitioner per 1000 patients in Penola is not enough according to Penola and District Medical Support Group representative, Bill Murray.
Mr Murray said the area needed a minimum of five full time general practitioners to treat all residents.
It comes following a statement that the current number of doctors compared to population in the Penola area was sufficient.
The statement was made in a draft 25 year Strategic Land Use Plan, developed for Wattle Range Council by Adelaide based planning consultants Holmes Dyer.
It stated that one doctor per 1000 people was the standard, and 125 aged care places per 1000 people over the age of 70.
Despite this, the document also stated that, given the district’s ageing population, medical facilities would have increased importance.
“Penola has three doctors within the Penola Doctors clinic, sufficient by these metrics to service approximately 3000 people,” the document stated.
“When considering Nangwarry, Kalangadoo and Coonawarra and the additional services at the Penola War Memorial Hospital, this is roughly sufficient.”
According to the Australian Medical Association, throughout the 2017-2018 financial year, outer regional communities had 93 general practitioners to every 100,000 residents.
This is compared to 103.5 per 100,000 people in the major cities.
Mr Murray said that with 34.8 per cent of the town’s population expected to be aged 65 to 79 by 2026, the need for medical support was dire.
“I think the one doctor to 1000 patients is a large rate, especially when compared to the city,” Mr Murray said.
“In the city, patients also have specialists that are around them which means clients virtually have an instant reply to their needs.
“We have seen an increase in diabetes and heart problems recently and there is generally one good heart specialist that comes to Naracoorte once a month but we need to have extra people on the ground.”
He said due to the industrial work surrounding the Penola and district area, more doctors were also in need due to after hours callouts.
“We have a lot of people working late into the night which does mean a number of accidents,” Mr Murray said.
“Our three doctors are on-call a lot of the time and we can’t expect them to be.
“If there is an accident in the early hours of the morning, then the doctors would have to come in, assess the situation and then work a full day as a general practitioner as well.”
He said these issues were putting immense pressure on the doctors, making it difficult to keep them in the area.
“A lot of doctors move on because they’re profession is not family friendly,” Mr Murray said.
“The other part of it too is that country doctors need to be paid more because they are looking after our ageing community.
“It is also difficult to get nurses, and carers for Pinchunga Aged Care, which is just as important as getting doctors and it is the whole system that needs upgrading, not just doctors.”
