Practices still struggling six months after flooding

With NSW bracing for more wild weather – and some areas already underwater – the RACGP is urging the governments to provide immediate support to essential healthcare services still struggling to recover from the state’s last bout of devastating floods.
 
In a show of solidarity, the RACGP joined with a number of other healthcare organisations including the AMA, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, and Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, to call for federal and state support for the NSW Rural Doctor’s Network’s Healthcare Flood Recovery Grant Proposal.
 
With 25 primary care services damaged in Lismore and the surrounding Northern Rivers communities – many of which were affected by previous floods – RACGP President Adjunct Professor Karen Price says urgent action is needed.
 
‘It’s deeply concerning that many of these essential healthcare services are now considering closing their doors and leaving the area, because they haven’t been able to access sufficient or timely grant funding, which they need to recover,’ she said.
 
‘The closure of these services would be devastating for the local communities they serve. The health statistics show regional and rural communities have poorer health outcomes, and this would make matters worse.
 
‘I urge governments to provide immediate support to the healthcare services in need to ensure they can keep their doors open and continue caring for their patients.’
 
One practice that has been impacted, Lismore’s Keen St Clinic, is struggling with the $2 million financial impact from the flood, while also trying to provide care for the community.
 
‘Our clinic was totally destroyed,’ GP Dr Nina Robertson told Nine Newspapers.
 
‘The emergency response focused on the first 24 hours, but there is no focus on how we build back after a disaster.
 
‘We are begging for help six months after the flood: why do we have to do this?’
 
RACGP NSW Chair Associate Professor Charlotte Hespe said the floods have been devastating for essential healthcare services – especially as many had no flood insurance because it is unavailable or unaffordable.
 
‘If essential healthcare services are forced to close because they can’t get the support they need, it will not only impact on the physical health of the people who need them, it will also have a profound impact on mental health,’ she said.
 
‘Governments need to recognise the seriousness of this situation, and immediately provide the grant funding needed to the healthcare services that need it.
 
‘Sustainable healthcare services are fundamentally important to the ongoing health and wellbeing of communities across Australia.’
 
Professor Price believes an emergency relief fund should be established, which is easily accessible with minimal red tape.
 
In addition to financial support, Professor Price said the RACGP has also long been urging governments to implement reforms that would allow GPs to provide more care for communities impacted by natural disasters.
 
‘General practice needs to be recognised as an essential service during disaster recovery,’ she said.
 
‘This is critical to ensure that practices are prioritised to receive immediate access to any support needed so they can rebuild, recover, and ensure ongoing access to care for their patients and communities.
 
‘GPs in disaster areas also tell us that allowing unlimited prescribing of doctor’s bag medicines would make a real difference for patients.’
 
While the PBS currently allows prescribers to supply certain medicines free of charge to patients for emergency use, prescribers are restricted to a maximum quantity of medicines – a limitation Professor Price says ‘doesn’t make sense’.
 
‘We should be making access to care and prescribed medicines as easy as possible for those experiencing such hardship,’ she said.
 
‘We have also been calling for GPs as frontline health providers to be formally recognised in any national natural disaster arrangements in Australia, and embedded in emergency plans across the country, especially in rural areas.
 
‘GPs play a key role helping their communities in times of disaster, including in the immediate aftermath and throughout the recovery, but currently their involvement is informal. If general practice was properly included in disaster planning, including the planning, preparation, exercises and debriefing afterwards, it would make a real difference for communities.
 
‘[At the moment], general practice is not well supported by either the federal or state and territory governments in times of disaster.’
 
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