The conference brings together practitioners, policy people, education providers, health service providers and students to listen to peer-reviewed presentations on issues related to remote and rural health.

Centre director and conference organiser Professor Sabina Knight said the theme of the conference was “rural and remote health workforce – transition into practice.”

“We want to inform and influence health workforce, practice, service development and policy for remote and rural areas,” Prof Knight said.

“Rural and remote areas face intractable problems with workforce supply, distribution and skill mix. This conference focuses on questioning the health workforce models and transition to practice experience.”

Opening the conference, state member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter said rural and remote health was an underfunded area of government policy.

“Money and resources go where the votes are, that’s the cold, harsh reality of our system and that’s the challenge we’ve got,” Mr Katter said.

“Despite having lower health status in rural and remote areas, we receive less per capita in health services.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University Prof Ian Wronski said the Mount Isa Centre for Remote and Rural Centre was a world-class facility.

“Sabina and her team have set a cultural environment for people who want to do interesting things in a place (west of the Divide) where most of the arm-wrestling around rural and remote work is being played out,” Prof Wronski said.

Acting SWHHS Medical Services Executive Director Dr Nova Evans said it was important to get the recruiting process right.

“A key challenge for us is a lack of permanent doctors but there is no point in having them arrive to mayhem,” Dr Evans said. “We need to be a place where people want to be a part of, and we need to have everything in place for them.”