Stephen Duckett

speaker

921 appearances 12 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2006 last heard May 2019

Stephen Duckett’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Health Report · 30 September 2013 · 30 Sep 2013 podcast

If you look at the shortage in the areas like the Kimberley and the Pilbara, for example, in Western Australia, there's only about 57 doctors per 100,000 population. voice-verified

If you contrast that with suburban Sydney, for example, there are 122 doctors per 100,000 population. voice-verified

So there's only half the number of doctors in these rural and remote areas as there are in the cities. voice-verified

And of course, health needs are somewhat greater in rural and remote than there are in the cities. voice-verified

enough. voice-verified

I think there are a couple of issues here. voice-verified

The doctor strike stuff looks at overall averages. voice-verified

And so maybe at the high end, at the 122, if the doctors go on strike, there is no impact. voice-verified

But at that lower end, there is a serious impact. voice-verified

We did a study, for example, which looked at the cost to the hospital system of poor access. voice-verified

And what we found was that per patient, voice-verified

after you standardise for everything else, that an additional doctor in a community actually reduces the cost of hospital care for people in that community. voice-verified

So there is an impact on the budget as a result of this low access, not counting the impact on individuals. voice-verified

So what you're saying is that if you don't have a GP, you use hospital services more than you need to. voice-verified

Well, you end up going to hospital late and so your condition becomes somewhat more complex. voice-verified

Which is a huge issue for Aboriginal communities. voice-verified

A huge issue for Aboriginal communities. voice-verified

Well, we decided to tackle the worst first. voice-verified

We said, let's concentrate our initiatives on the places with the worst access in the country and see what we can do to change that very, very quickly. voice-verified

Over a five-year period. voice-verified

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