It was with great pride and satisfaction that Ted Baillieu and I unveiled our policy to attract new doctors to regional areas suffering under the current chronic shortfall.

Forty post-graduate medical degree scholarships will be allocated in country Victoria each year over four years. Scholarships will require new doctors to spend two years full time in rural practice. In the short-term, 150 fully qualified doctors will be recruited from interstate and overseas to plug the gaping holes in the current system.

$12 million has been set aside to remedy the funding crisis that has seen many regional hospitals and even emergency services operating on a grossly inadequate 9 to 5 timetable.

Through increased funding of locum services, after hours payments and skills improvement we are investing in the wellbeing of doctors already serving rural patients to alleviate the pressures under which they are currently working.

Under our Practice Support Fund, relocation payments of up to $15,000 as well as personal and professional support such as HECS breaks will provide incentives for doctors to move to underserved areas.

Over the last 7 years of Labor government, the problems in rural and regional health care have worsened until we have reached the current crisis point. GP numbers in rural Victoria are short by up to 200 and specialists such as obstetricians, anaesthetists, surgeons and psychiatrists are also in very short supply. More than 18 hospitals have suspended or abandoned their obstetrics services, forcing local mothers to travel far from home to deliver their babies safely.

Steve Bracks has been more concerned with maintaining his public image (to the tune of $80 million!) through PR than addressing the dire condition of health care in Victoria.