Rural health snapshot reveals ‘shameful failure’

A report once again showing significant health disparities between country and city patients is a ‘wake-up call’ to political parties as we head towards the polls, the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) says.
 
The Alliance’s Rural Health in Australia Snapshot 2025 describes a confronting reality for the 7.3 million Australians living in rural and remote areas, with poorer health outcomes, lower life expectancy and reduced access to healthcare services compared with those in the major cities.
 
Launching the report, NRHA Chief Executive Susi Tegen said the data highlights a ‘shameful failure to adequately provide funding and services to rural Australians’.
 
‘The snapshot reinforces the urgent need for immediate action, especially with the Federal Election on the horizon,’ she says.
 
‘It is a wake-up call to say enough is enough.
 
‘For decades, we have known about the healthcare challenges, the additional costs, and the tyranny of distance, but there has been too little action.’
 
Amongst the key findings, men in ‘very remote’ areas were found to be dying up to 13.6 years earlier, and women up to 12.7 years earlier, than those in metropolitan areas.
 
All areas outside of major cities experienced higher rates of preventable hospitalisations, stretching up to three times higher in remote areas.
 
When compared to city dwellers, potentially avoidable deaths in ‘very remote’ Australia were 2.5 times higher in males and 3.7 times higher in females.
 
GP access is also a key issue in the report.
 
It found people living in outer regional, remote or very remote areas experience longer waiting times to see a GP than those in major cities, and 18,405 people in remote and very remote Australia lacked access to primary healthcare services within an hour’s drive from home.
 
Metro areas had more GPs providing primary care (115.2 FTE per 100,000 population) than regional centres (109.9), small rural towns (78.2), remote communities (68.1) and very remote communities (70.7).
 
Healthcare access barriers were further emphasised in data showing patients in very remote Australia use Medicare almost 50% less than those who live in cities.
 
RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements described rural and remote communities as ‘the canary in the coal mine’.
 
‘They are the first to experience GP shortages because these are the hardest [positions] to fill,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘We know there aren’t enough GPs being trained right now to meet Australia’s needs – and that’s across urban and rural areas – so people need to start looking at these rural numbers, and the life expectancy drop the more rural you move, and recognise that this is the future of even urban primary care in Australian if we don’t reverse the trend that we’ve been seeing.’
 
Associate Professor Clements said a flexible approach to funding will go a long way in addressing the disparities between city and country communities, including tiered funding and incentives for GPs which increase with remoteness and community need.
 
‘Rural and remote GPs want unique, place-based solutions but also a package of funding that reflects the differences between what it’s like to be an urban GP versus a rural GP,’ he said.
 
‘That’s not just tiered incentives but an approach which recognises different funding solutions are required in different towns.
 
‘In some towns we need pooled funding and bundled payments where there’s a lot more team-based care, and in other communities we need more uplift in the fee for service. Medicare and private billing can work in some communities, depending on how it’s structured.’
 
The NRHA takes a similar stance in its bid to address the ongoing issues faced by rural communities.
 
‘Rural Australia has its own identity and requires tailored, place-based solutions to meet its unique geographic and societal needs,’ Ms Tegen said.
 
‘We call for a National Rural Health Strategy under the National Health Reform Agreement. This will coordinate Commonwealth, State, and Territory policy, investment and service delivery to ensure tailored, sustainable solutions.
 
‘The solutions exist on the ground. It is time to step up, allow for flexibility, prioritise equity and address these glaring disparities.’
 
Other findings in the NRHA snapshot include:
 

• Coronary heart disease is the leading disease burden in all areas of remoteness, with its load in remote and very remote areas being 2.2 times higher than in the cities
• Chronic kidney disease is 3.1 times the disease burden
• Type 2 diabetes, suicide and self-inflicted injuries were among the top five leading causes of disease burden
• People living in rural areas were more likely to experience domestic violence than those in major cities
• People who live in very remote areas have lower participation in cancer screening

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