The funding disparity in health research between rural and metropolitan communities will be need to be fixed if Australia wants to close the gap in health outcomes, according to researchers.
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A team at La Trobe University has raised concern around a lack of investment in rural health research, describing the discrepancy as "inequitable and unfair" given the barriers and disadvantages already faced in the regions.
It is estimated just 2.4 per cent of projects funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council are aimed specifically at improving outcomes in rural and remote Australia.
Professor Jane Mills, dean of the La Trobe Rural Health School, said the disparity had lasted "forever".
"The amount of research that gets funded in rural Australia is very low in comparison to the city, which of course creates lots of issues in terms of place-based understanding of what's required to really improve rural health and wellbeing," Dr Mills said.
"We need more evidence in order for policy to be based on some actual facts, rather than supposition and anecdotal stories about what's going on in rural Australia around the health workforce."
There have been renewed calls this year to rethink the national approach amid concerns the medical system is focused on the metro and out of touch with the bush.
A National Rural Health Alliance report found earlier this year, regional Australians were losing out on almost $850 a year in healthcare access due to inadequate funding, or a total annual spending deficit of $6.5 billion.
General practice has also been in the spotlight as the sector grapples with how to keep doctors in the communities where they are needed the most.
Dr Mills said medicare reforms and federal initiatives were promising, but the underlying issues need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
"On average, rural and regional healthcare practitioners are around three to five years older than their metropolitan counterparts, which means that this crisis of workforce is only going to continue over the next few years, as many of those people head towards retirement and leave the professions," Dr Mills said.
"I would like to think that we would see much more in terms of multidisciplinary care and more flexible models of service provision in five years' time, but we still have to have a workforce to be able to deliver those models of care.
"Doing some research on the reasons why people are leaving the profession and what would keep them in the profession is actually really vital to make sure that we can get on with the actual work of providing care to people going forward."
