GPs should not be lumped in with “the butcher or the bakery” when it comes to financial support to recover from the next natural disaster, the AMA says. 

Dozens of practices in northern NSW waited more than a year for state government support grants of up to $150,000 to rebuild after devastating floods swept through the region last year.

“Doctors, pharmacists, and allied health workers are an essential part of the emergency response in rural areas but are left to clean up their own businesses at enormous cost, with hardly any financial support, all the while continuing to look after their communities and their own families,” AMA NSW president Dr Michael Bonning said. 

“That’s not to downplay the importance of the butcher or the bakery, but these services are on a totally different level when it comes to the needs of the community.”