The Wire

Rural doctors have given their backing to a plan by the deputy prime minister that would see state governments forced to give funding to country hospitals, in a bid to improve the dire situation of heath care in the bush. Over the weekend national’s leader Mark Vaille unveiled a plan that would see commonwealth funding agreements with the states include funds earmarked for public hospitals in rural and regional Australia. Speaking in support of the plan, the Rural Doctors Association of Australia said that the absence of dedicated funds for rural and regional hospitals had been a key contributor to the poor co-ordination between state and federal delivery of health services. Doctor Peter Rischbieth practices in Murray Bridge in South Australia and he’s also the vice president of the rural doctors association.