Minister talks rural health workers

THE Federal Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, visited Bendigo last week to open the La Trobe Rural Health School’s research conference.

Ms Kearney said the conference, the first held one in person in two years, was an important day of discussion for things from ageing populations to COVID-19, workforce shortages, mental health and cultural safety.

“We’re looking at ways regional healthcare can be improved because unfortunately, the current state of affairs is people in rural and regional areas have specific needs that aren’t being appropriately met,” Ms Kearney said.

“To look at innovative ways we can improve that is important and La Trobe University does an incredible job doing research into that.

Ms Kearney said the Federal Government was elected at a time when the workforce is “under enormous pressure” and she supports work being done by La Trobe to try improving conditions for workers.

LRHS dean, Professor Jane Mills, said there is a shortage of staff being felt across the state.

“One of the major problems we have is around retaining staff,” she said. “The health workforce environment is so high pressure at the moment that it is quite hard for early year clinicians to survive the first few years.

“Once they make it past the first three years, we know they’ll stick and stay in the workforce, so for us one of the interesting areas we’re currently investigating is what are those pressure points and how can we petter develop interventions that will assist people to actually stay.”

Professor Mills said the rural health school would like to work further with the Federal Government to create placement hubs in smaller areas in northern Victoria.

“We know that students that have a positive rural experience in particular towns are likely to get a job there and stay when they graduate,” she said.

“Being able to push out even further into regional Victoria and support our students to undertake placements in areas outside our main four campuses is an important project for us.”