A RENOWNED Bathurst doctor believes there needs to be incentives for practitioners to stay in the region.
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The state is facing what is described as an unprecedented health worker shortage, with some communities in the far west without even one full-time general practitioner (GP).
Doctor Ross Wilson, who has over 30 years of experience as a GP in the local community, welcomed the four new trainee doctors that joined the Bathurst ranks on Monday, January 29.
But he said more needs to be done to get doctors out in regional areas, including financial incentives.
"I think we need a real pipeline from the student stage through the junior doctor stage to the specialist stage, where people are pipelined into rural areas," he said.
"We need them committed to that pipeline early on in their training.
"At the end of it, there should be a substantial reward, as far as recognition and remuneration is concerned."
He described the doctor shortage in NSW as "critical", and said the far west of the state is the worst hit.
"If you go west of Dubbo, there's not a town that can count a full-time general practitioner in its ranks," he said.
"We're about 4200 doctors short Australia-wide. That's a damning indictment on a society that says we've got equity of access to healthcare.
"I would not like to be a pregnant woman in Wilcannia because whatever you do, you've got a trip of between 500 and 600 kilometres before you can see a GP trained obstetrician or specialist obstetrician, should you need one."
Four third-year students of the Doctor of Medicine started a placement at the Central Tablelands Clinical School in Bathurst recently: Dylan Byrne, Blake Jones, Sharonee Anton and Molly Wong.
All four did their studies in the region and Dr Wilson believes the exposure students get in a rural area will provide a greater chance of keeping them out here.
"All the study papers show us that the longer the exposure of the student to a rural area, the greater the chance of remaining in the area," he said.
"But we're finding more and more urban students choosing to stay urban.
"We've really got to get them out of the big cities into the rural areas and expose them for longer periods of time.
"If I was young and stupid and didn't have the mentors I had, I would've stayed in the city.
"I grew up in a rural area, but it was my mentors in medicine that made me come back to the bush."
Doctor Ross Wilson has worked as a GP in the Bathurst region for 30 years. In 2012 he was named Australian GP of the Year and in 2023 was the recipient of the Brian Williams Award, which acknowledges those who mentor and support rural doctors.