ATTRACTING more doctors to the bush and delivering faster emergency medical care to rural Australians are among the top priorities for newly elected Rural Doctors Association of Australia president John Hall.
The rural GP, who owns three medical centres on Queensland's Darling Downs and delivers obstetric services to patients in NSW and WA, said care could be improved if rural doctors were called on to help when accidents or disasters strike.
"Rural patients after an accident can be left waiting hours for a retrieval team to arrive, when there may well be a highly trained rural doctor with advanced emergency skills in the next town, and yet too often they are not called on to assist," he said.
Too often in rural areas the skills of rural generalist doctors trained in emergency, are overlooked in disaster and retrieval situations.
Dr Hall said he was keen to work with all States to improve outcomes for rural patients. Strengthening maternity care in rural hospitals was also another aim, he said.
Dr Hall's appointment was announced on the Gold Coast during the Rural Medicine Australia conference.