Rural patients waiting up to eight weeks to see a GP, doctors use new methods to provide care.

Image: ABC. By Sophie Scott.

Patients in rural Australia with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are waiting as long as eight weeks to get an appointment with a GP.

Many have to travel four hours a day for an appointment with a specialist.

The overwhelming demand for health services has led rural doctors to develop innovative models of care to ensure patients get the medical help they need.

Dr Tammy Kimpton is a Palawa woman from the west coast of Tasmania.

She is part owner and works as a GP in a private medical practice in Scone, in the Upper Hunter in New South Wales.

“We have 12 doctors who look after around 12,000 to 15,000 patients in the catchment area,” she said.

At her surgery, a duty GP is on call and patients are triaged in a mini emergency area.

“If patients want to see the doctor of their choice, it can take up to eight weeks, but with this system, there is always a doctor available to see patients who need urgent medical help,” she said.

She said some patients still wanted to wait for their own doctor, but that could have consequences.

“If the patient has diabetes and their sugars are running high, that will have implications over the eight weeks and it would have been advantageous to have dealt with that earlier.”

Specialist care not always available

Dr Kimpton said one of the big challenges was dealing with patients whose medical problems fall outside the scope of GP expertise.

“We have a general practice here that we are really proud of but we do know that we have some limitations in the level of care we can provide,” she said.

“Patients are not always going to be able to access specialist care in town here and they need to travel and for some people, that is a significant issue.”

Her practice has a number of visiting medical specialists including a surgeon, endocrinologist and a cardiologist.

She said working as a rural GP and living in a small community had many benefits.

“The good thing is it allows you a lot of information about the patient. My patients and I have a lot of social connections that you wouldn’t expect in an urban practice,” Dr Kimpton said.

“When I see small children here, often they will go to school with my children.”

Rural diabetes epidemic

Scone local Darren Carter is one of thousands of rural Australians living with type 2 diabetes.

He was diagnosed about 10 years ago.

He is managing it but at his appointment with Dr Kimpton, his weight has increased, so his diet is under the microscope.

“My diet is terrible. I just don’t follow a particular diet,” he said.

He has always lived in the Upper Hunter in NSW and sees Dr Kimpton every six months for a check up.

So far, he has not had to see a diabetes specialist.

“In the city, they just go across town to a specialist when they need one. Sometimes they travel up but I haven’t had to see one,” Mr Carter said.

He said it is because his GPs are so good at looking after him.

“Yes, when I listen to them,” he said.

Programs to boost rural and regional health

There have been a number of initiatives designed to boost medical services to people in rural and regional Australia, which include:

• The Medical Specialist Outreach Program, designed to improve access to specialist services, including Indigenous chronic disease multi-disciplinary teams and multi-disciplinary maternity services teams
• The National Rural and Remote Health Infrastructure Program which aims to improve access to health services by providing funding to rural and remote communities for essential health infrastructure and equipment
• The Rural Flying Doctors service has a 24 hour emergency service, primary and community health care clinics at remote sites, doctor and nurse remote consultations by telephone or radio, and provision of medical chests containing an extensive range of pharmaceutical and medical supplies.

Keeping Australia Alive airs at 8.30pm Tuesday, March 15, on the ABC.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.