In 2003, approximately 72 per cent of the Victoria's population lived in metropolitan areas, and 28 per cent lived in rural/regional areas. People who reside in rural areas are more at risk of premature death from avoidable causes, including injury from traffic accidents, suicide, machinery accidents and drowning, ischemic heart disease and cancers.
Rural CEOs Network meetings
The VHA hold a bi-monthly Rural CEO Network meeting to function as an information sharing and professional development forum for Rural Health Service CEOs and to identify specific needs within this sector that VHA may need to respond to with research and policy development.
Rural Reclassification
The Federal Government intends to change the rural and remote classification from the current Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas to a structure based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia. The VHA has been working with the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria and General Practice Victoria to develop a greater understanding of this issue and how to mitigate the effects of the change. More information is available about this issue here.
Rural Emergency Services
Rural health services providing emergency and urgent care face a range of issues related to workforce shortages and the absence of a cohesive and systemic funding framework based on population and demand needs. Many of these issues are associated with variable access to after hours GP services in rural areas.
Rural Health Funding
Following advocacy to State Government, the VHA welcomed the announcement of a significant funding boost for rural health services. Victoria's Minister for Health the Hon Daniel Andrews MP, announced an additional $600,000 for each Rural IT Alliance ($3M total) to ease financial pressures associated with Wide Area Network implementation.
An additional $3 million was earmarked for rural and regional health services to address some of the funding shortfalls associated with the Nurses Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
