The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) welcomes the federal government's acknowledgment last week that the proposed National Health and Hospitals Network reform would take into account all local costs in rural areas and look at a form of national block funding able to underpin the continuation of smaller rural hospitals in the future if activity-based funding does not work. Dr Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Chair of the RACGP's National Rural Faculty, said that rural and remote hospitals are often seen as the hub of their communities...




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