Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to urge you to ensure our regional health system is ready for the next phase of the pandemic.

Regional Australians have done their part throughout this pandemic to keep COVID out of our communities.

We have done this, because we know the spread of COVID in unvaccinated regional communities would have devastating consequences that our fragile health systems would be unable to handle on their own.

Our fine rural doctors, nurses, allied health workers and administrative staff have gone above and beyond to keep our communities safe during this pandemic.

Teams of healthcare workers have vaccinated entire towns in a matter of weeks. Rural health services and patients alike have adjusted to recurrent lockdowns and provided medical services via telehealth. And regional hospitals have continued to deliver critical care despite furloughed staff and onerous COVID safe practices.

But our resilient healthcare workers can only do so much.

The fatigue and mental health impacts on the ground are real.

Regional health was already chronically underfunded and stretched before the pandemic.

We have small populations spread over large distances with long trips to health services. Unlike the city, an ambulance is not always a phone call way. Attracting and retaining GPs and other high skill workers is an ongoing challenge. And our regional facilities have very limited critical care resources, let alone the capacity to manage a COVID outbreak.

The Government has said it has a plan for opening up as vaccination rates climb.

That plan must include scaled up funding and support for regional health services as COVID enters the community.

As we continue to open up, we will need access to surge healthcare workers to monitor COVID patients in their homes, and continue our vaccination drive through an outbreak. Transfers to city hospital must happen swiftly. Here in regional Victoria, we do not want a repeat of what has happened in New South Wales where COVID patients became critical in their homes before transfer to hospital. And we need assurances that COVID patients sent to city hospitals will not simply be ramped and left waiting in ambulances in the streets.

We know challenges such as these are on their way, and we call on you to act now.

We were dismayed to hear the Deputy Prime Minister say that “this Government does not own a hospital” and that the State Government is primarily responsible here. The last thing regional health needs right now, is buck passing and politics over who is responsible for our lives and livelihoods.

Now is the time to truly invest in our regional health systems, which have been neglected for decades.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Helen Haines MP

Independent Federal Member for Indi

29 September 2021