AMA VICDOC Autumn 2024 - Magazine - Page 23
T
his singular focus on urban Australia
as the centre is strikingly captured with
frustration by two authors tasked by the
government to explain the plight of rural
Australia: “We could not find a single
source that convincingly captured the realities of
the Australia existing beyond the nation’s cities
and suburbs” (Sher and Sher, 1994).
It’s unsurprising that the Australian
government has always had such an urbancentric view. Politicians, even those representing
rural electorates, work in cities after all.
Yet around 28% of Australians live in rural and
remote areas. In combination with the urban
exodus precipitated by remote working, the
pertinence of rural health is only increasing.
However, healthcare standards in rural and
remote areas are declining, and the extent of the
inequity in health and other living standards
between rural and urban areas is so vast it is now
being called a human rights issue. Data from the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows
that people living in rural and remote areas
have higher rates of hospitalisations, deaths, and
poorer health status than people living in major
cities. Ironically, even achieving equality would
only be doing the bare minimum – rural health
needs are often greater than metropolitan needs,
and a truly equitable system would allocate
greater resources to rural areas than
metropolitan ones.
It is clear rural healthcare must be improved
– not only because health is a fundamental
human right, but because worsening rural health
standards will worsen urban health too. To make
truly effective solutions, we must address the
underlying causes of poor rural health.
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