(Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

In August the Senate decided to launch an inquiry into GPs in regional, rural and remote areas — yet another in a series of inquiries over the decades into the vexing issue of how to get more GPs working in small bush communities.

It is due to report by the end of March — which may or may not mean it is finished before the election — and has received more than 200 submissions.

For a government with an election to save, however, that timetable is useless. Rather than try to work out what actually might work, the Nationals’ Minister for Regional Health David Gillespie announced last week — though good luck finding the details anywhere — that the government would “eliminate the HELP debt of doctors and nurse practitioners who work in general practice in a rural, remote, or very remote location for a specified period”.

The media duly reported it as a new program. But it’s not new at all.

In 2015 this government cancelled the HECS Reimbursement Scheme which “reimburses standard HECS debts of medical students should they choose to train and work in rural and remote communities”. So the new program is just the reintroduction of a program the government had axed.

It did “replace” it with an “enhancement” of another scheme, the bonded medical program which also paid students’ tuition fees if they practised in rural and regional communities. As the Health Department admitted to the inquiry, the transition has been dogged by problems for years.

Why was the original reimbursement scheme, which has now been restored, axed? It had a long history of not working. It turns out money isn’t the big issue in attracting GPs to work in the bush, according to research. Factors like long hours and stress are also crucial, along with other financial factors like the ability to own one’s practice.

There’s also lack of collegial support, lack of professional development opportunities, and non-professional factors like the lack of employment opportunities for partners and separation from family and support networks.

It’s well known that GPs from rural areas are much more likely to want to work there, and successive governments have been trying to lift the level of country kids heading into — and staying in — medicine, along with establishing medical colleges in regional areas.

In short, it’s a long-term, complex problem that has resisted governments throwing money at it for a long time. But that hasn’t deterred Gillespie and the Nationals for reheating an old, questionable policy in the lead-up to the election.

Do you think it’s about the money, or other professional or lifestyle factors? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.