Labor's Shadow Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler and Federal Hunter MPs announce plan to fix GP shortages

Labor has pledged to "fix" the Hunter's GP shortage by restoring the region's status as a "Distribution Priority Area", which would allow practices to supplement their workforce with overseas-trained and "bonded" doctors. Visiting Windale Community Medical Centre on Tuesday, Shadow Minister for Health and Aging Mark Butler said 149 GP practices in the Hunter and Central Coast had been unable to access this workforce since the Morrison government reclassified parts of the region - such as Kurri Kurri - in 2019, putting them on par with some of the northern suburbs of Sydney.

"It has never been harder to get in to see a GP in this region," Mr Butler said. "It has never been more expensive to see a GP in this region."

Mr Butler said they did not "pretend" recruitment to the Hunter Valley was the same as more rural and remote areas such as the far west of NSW. But nor was the Hunter the same as Sydney.

"There are additional incentives for the more rural and remote parts of Australia, and they should remain in place," he said. "But there has got to be a middle path for region's like this, and that was what was abolished three years ago."

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The Hunter GP Association, which represents 400 doctors in the region, says GP shortages had left patients "struggling" to see a doctor and a workforce that was stressed, stretched, and burnt out. Dr Lee Fong said the association welcomed any steps by any party willing to tackle the workforce shortage in the region.

"The Hunter is being compared to the northern suburbs of Sydney," Dr Fong said. "It should be obvious that we are not Mosman. We are not Manly. While we both have low bulk billing rates, on pretty much every other level - including socioeconomic disadvantage and GP workforce shortage - we are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum."

But the Federal Minister for Regional Health Dr David Gillespie, said this "blanket" policy would see more doctors working in larger centres like Newcastle and fewer working in rural areas of the Hunter.

"The Distribution Priority Area is not a random decision," the former regional doctor said. "It's based on access to Medicare services, based on billing, and the number of doctors in an area... They analyse it every year and make a decision."

Minister Gillespie said they were "working through" some "exceptional circumstance" applications for some Hunter catchments on this issue, but Labor's policy would "cannibalise" regions that were even more desperate for doctors.

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