Solving the shortage of general practitioners in remote and rural Australia: a Sisyphean task?

Abstract

When I set up in practice at Kununoppin [Western Australia] in 1958, the hospital was administered by a teenage girl working 3 days per week, the bed average was 20 and if I had a problem, the Medical Department would solve it. Today, the bed average is 14.5, a number that includes 10 residents in the permanent care facility, the hospital administration requires 3.6 full-time employees and if ever I have a problem, the Medical Department has almost certainly caused it. — Dr John Radunovich, addressing the Country Medical Foundation in 1993, tionalised”