Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the Howard government had used 17-year-old population figures to dictate the incentives that doctors who practise in rural and remote areas receive.

Ms Roxon said an audit of Australia’s rural and regional health workforce has revealed the previous Liberal government relied on population figures from the 1991 Census.

She said the Rudd government will reform this system to base incentives on current population figures and real need.

The audit, conducted by the Department of Health and Ageing, also found the current supply of health professionals is not sufficient to meet current needs, and that this situation will get worse as both the population and the workforce age.

“The supply of health professionals in many rural and regional centres is low to very poor,” Ms Roxon said.

“The average number of full-time general practitioners per 100,000 population is as low as 25.3 in some very remote areas, while the average number of medical workers is as low as 30 in some very remote areas.”

It was also determined that Australia is highly reliant on overseas trained health professionals, with 36 per cent of doctors working in Australia trained overseas. This figure rises to 41 per cent in rural and remote areas.

“Now that we have a clear picture of the extent of the challenges, the Government will embark on a comprehensive overhaul of the rural health workforce programs,” Ms Roxon said.

She said the Government would immediately establish an Office of Rural Health in the Department of Health and Ageing, to drive reform in the rural health sector.

And it would continue to invest in rural and regional health services to ensure families get the health services they need – including $6.3 million extra funding for a number of existing rural clinical schools and university departments of rural health to expand their capacity.