Rural health data and our Rural Generalists

Our Rural Generalists are our GPs working in the rural parts of NSW - and truly are 'generalists’ as they are often the only doctor working in their rural area - so they become experts across many different areas of medicine. Approximately 27% of Australia’s population lives in regional, rural and remote areas. The population breakdown according to ABS (at 20 June 2023) is:

73% live in major cities
18% inner regional areas
8.0% outer regional areas
1.1% remote areas
0.7% very remote areas.

The Australians living in rural and remote areas can face unique challenges, including at times poorer health outcomes compared to people living in metropolitan areas - often due to lack of access to primary health care services. Data shows that people living in these rural and remote areas have higher rates of hospitalisations, deaths and injury. According to data from AIHW, the burden of disease can be higher in these regions, across diseases including coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease and lung cancer. However, it was interesting to note that the burden of disease decreases in the remote areas for anxiety, back pain and dementia (AIHW).

It was a privilege to speak at the NSW Health Rural Generalists conference, put on by HETI. I was inspired by our doctors who are dedicated to working in remote and rural areas, and are committed to becoming ‘rural generalists’ so that they can respond to a wide range of health needs of Australians in those communities.

A snapshot of the day is here in this video:

Dr Claire Madden speaking at the Rural Generalists Conference in Wagga Wagga

If you would like Claire to speak at your next board meeting, conference or internal training day, please get in touch.