This week I rang a Port Macquarie medical practice to book an appointment with a GP.
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The receptionist laughed at me.
I rang a second practice and barely got to introduce myself before I was told "I'm sorry, we can't help you".
A third practice told me I could have an appointment with a trainee doctor, but they were leaving soon and there was no guarantee of a follow-up or that I'd be transferred to another GP.
I rang a couple more and each time I was told their doctors had "closed their books". I couldn't even go on a waitlist.
Later, as I used the last repeat for some basic medication, I asked the young pharmacist what I could do to get my prescription renewed. She told me that even she couldn't get a GP.
So, like many of you, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get really sick or that government efforts to encourage more GPs to move to regional areas, finally work. Because they clearly haven't so far.
Those efforts now include widening the Distribution Priority Areas (DPA) which means more regional towns can access a broader recruitment pool of GPs. Port Macquarie is in a DPA.
The program gives overseas-trained doctors immediate access to Medicare payments if they work in designated areas. It also includes "bonded" GPs whose training in Australia has been supported by federal funding.
But as of last week, areas like the Central Coast and Newcastle are now considered priority areas too, which means they'll draw from the same pool.
Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr Megan Belot blasted the "ill informed" changes, saying they would encourage doctors to leave rural areas for larger regional centres.
"Expanding DPA so that every location outside of a capital city, as well as some within, has the same classification, has degraded it to the point where it is worthless," she said.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Michael Bonning also called on the government to increase Medicare payments for GPs.
"If it remains a specialty that is significantly less remunerated than others, then we'll always remain a lower-priority choice for many medical graduates," he said.
Having leapt at the chance to return to Port Macquarie, I've struggled to understand why more doctors aren't choosing this lifestyle, too. But clearly multiple factors are at play.
I worry for those who are really sick or who are living with undiagnosed conditions. For their sake I hope these latest changes work.
Sue Stephenson
Editor, Port Macquarie News and North Coast (ACM)