Dr Webster was invited to the region by Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan, who says access to adequate regional healthcare has been among the top three priorities reported by his constituents since he took office in 2019.

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Three roundtable forums were held in Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Coffs Harbour.

“It was beneficial to have Anne here with us in the electorate to hear feedback firsthand from our passionate local professionals, and for her to be able to discuss the steps that she and the wider National Party team are already taking in the background to help address some of the more common pressure points across regional and rural Australia,” Mr Conaghan said.

While Mr Congahan admitted that the issues being discussed existed while the Coalition were in Government, he claimed the problems had been exacerbated by Federal Labor making policy changes with “metropolitan areas in mind”.

“The impacts, no matter how unintentional, are being felt hard in regions like ours,” Mr Congahan said.

“Changes like the recent Distribution Priority Area (DPA) updates that have opened the door for international medical graduate doctors to leave the regions for peri-urban settings.

“This has been a major factor in a reduction in GP clinics right across regional Australia, including our electorate,” Mr Conaghan said.

A common theme throughout the forums was worsening workforce shortages, with impacts felt by patients as well as local health and aged care providers and their staff.

Staff burnout and an inability to open facilities at capacity were common discussion points.

The need for employers to be able to source affordable housing and adequate childcare placements in order to attract staff was also tabled at each forum and site visit.

Additionally, unregistered NDIS providers were listed as a major contributing factor to the available workforce problem.

The lack of regulation around licensing criteria, as well as exorbitant hourly rates on offer when compared to the health care sector were of particular concern.

“We heard from every provider that they had lost staff to NDIS as they couldn’t compete with the hourly rate that some are able to charge without needing additional certification,” Mr Conaghan said.

The Ministers also paid a visit to the Riverside Gardens aged care home at Nambucca Heads while in the region.

“The visit by our Federal Member and the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health was informative and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to canvass aged care policy issues and improvements,” NVC Group Chairman Janine Reed said.

“The NVC Group CEO and I were able to share the complexities our organisation and sector now faces with funding and other impacts.

“Aged care is a highly regulated industry, and it has become very burdensome and extremely expensive, particularly when it has become so difficult to source staff and our sector has to meet legislated care minutes for aged care home residents.

“NVC Group and the whole sector is still experiencing financial impacts from COVID-19 and while the Federal Government’s COVID-19 grants have been reasonable, the application process to obtain funding was lengthy and it took six to twelve months to actually receive the funding in the bank.

“I thank our Federal Member for visiting to discuss with us how funding and policy for our sector could be improved.”

Mr Conaghan and Dr Webster visited Riverside Gardens on Thursday 23 November and visited the facility’s kitchen, memory support wing, common areas such as the dining room and library, and they caught up with some residents doing afternoon activities in common areas.

On November 21, the Albanese Government announced a wide-ranging review to urgently investigate how to more equitably distribute doctors and other health workers around the country.

The Working Better for Medicare Review will look at how current policies and programs can be strengthened to make it easier to see a doctor, nurse or other health worker in the outer suburbs of our major cities and in regional, rural and remote Australia.

The Review will look at Medicare’s role in locating the workforce, as well as the three main policy levers used to distribute the workforce – the Modified Monash Model, District of Workforce Shortage, and Distribution Priority Area.

The Working Better for Medicare Review will be led by nurse, advocate and remote health expert Professor Sabina Knight, and former senior health bureaucrat and academic Mick Reid.

The Review will be underpinned by extensive stakeholder engagement, with findings expected to be provided to government in mid-2024.

“The levers we have to spread doctors and health workers around the country are from a very different time, before the COVID pandemic and the global health workforce crunch,” Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said.

“The Albanese Government will use all possible levers to encourage doctors and other health workers to be where patients need them to be – outside of cities and in areas of need.

“I am delighted that Mick and Sabina, two expert, independent reviewers, have accepted my invitation to guide the review and look forward to the outcomes of this important work.”