Member for Orange, Russell Turner, met last week with Mudgee doctor, Peter Roberts to discuss the crisis.

“The Mudgee, Gulgong and Rylstone areas are by far the worst off in my electorate for doctor numbers.

“I will be writing to the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon and the NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher to alert them to the dangerous situation developing in this area,” he said.

He said he would be calling on the Federal Government to look at enlarging facilities for clinical school in regional areas.

“Evidence suggests that if doctors are trained in country areas, there is an 80 per cent chance they will stay there.

He said in the Mudgee area it was obvious that medical facilities were not keeping up with the growth in population.

Peter Roberts said he had practiced medicine in Mudgee for the past twenty one years and had never known the doctor/patient ratio to be worse.

He said at the Mudgee Medical Centre between the middle of July and the middle of August there had been over 4,500 incoming calls from patients seeking appointments.

“Two weeks ago there were no appointments available at the practice, yet we received two hundred and eighty calls from people seeking medical treatment.

“It is a very dangerous situation.

“The ideal ratio is one doctor for every nine hundred people.

“Currently in the Mudgee region there is one doctor for fifteen hundred people.

“If you consider that most doctors spend half their time at the hospital, that ratio blows out to one doctor for every 2,000 people.

“The hospital too is becoming much busier due to the overflow,” he said.

Dr. Roberts said the Federal Government urgently needed to revisit the infrastructure grants scheme adopted by the Howard government.

“Under this scheme we would be able to access $500,000 to help fund a larger medical facility but unfortunately the Rudd government has put the scheme on hold.

“The NSW government could assist by looking at incentives to attract more doctors into regional areas.

“The Rural Doctors Association has been lobbying the Federal government over the shortage of rural health professionals.

“It has suggested a Rural Isolation Payment to be paid to all rural doctors to reflect the isolation of rural practice and a Rural Procedural and Emergency/On Call loading, to better support rural procedural doctors who provide obstetric, surgical, anaesthetic or primary emergency on-call service in rural communities.

Dr Roberts believes the Mid-Western Regional Council should be more proactive in attracting doctors to the region.

“Other regional councils spend millions of dollars on health care but in Mudgee it is totally ignored.

“New councilors need to put health care as a top priority.

“It’s an important resource for the entire shire and the council needs to play a bigger role,” he said.