We can't get country doctors

and it does not surprise me. Our rural health services are in urgent need of help. They have been that way for a long time now. Doctors don't want to work in rural areas or even in regional areas.  I can hardly blame them.

Doctors in rural areas are on call ALL the time. They can never take time off - even to eat and sleep - without wondering if there will be "that" phone call which requires them to drop everything. They can't stop to fill their car with petrol without someone wanting to ask a question about something which is worrying them. They can't stand in the queue at the local supermarket without being accosted. 

They have to take on far more responsibilities than a city GP. The last time most city GPs delivered a baby it was under the supervision of an entire medical team. Most city GPs have never done anything but the most minor of surgery. City GPs don't deal with arms mangled in a harvester. City GPs don't deal with all sorts of things rural doctors deal with on an almost daily basis. City GPs send you off to a "specialist" for things the rural doctor is simply expected to handle.

There are some amazing stories about rural GPs. There was the doctor (and we knew this man) who operated on a farmer (another man we knew) by the roadside in the middle of the night and "hoped to hell it worked". It did work. It should not have worked but it did work. He took a risk which paid off, a risk a city GP would not even have considered. 

Another rural GP we knew was, in the absence of any vet, called on to be the vet as well. She once delivered a calf and then came on to the school to stitch the arm of a student. I made her a cup of tea while she did it - before she went on to hold her surgery in the town's memorial hall, and do it without the benefit of any help.

Rural doctoring is very different. You might need to deal with anything from birth to death and everything in between. 

If they want people to go on doing this job then they have to pay them well. Litigation was once unknown but people think they know more now. Dr Google has taught them "all about it". Make a mistake and you will find yourself, at best, up in front of the board.  There are no colleagues to cover for you. 

Perhaps we should require all aspiring GPs to spend a year in a rural community. It is possible they may learn a great deal that only experience can teach them. Some of them might even be persuaded to stay a bit longer.