Karratha council extends health worker housing scheme despite review finding initiative ineffective

The City of Karratha has opted to continue a local housing scheme to help attract primary healthcare workers to the rural centre for another year despite a review finding it had little effect in drawing and retaining staff. The Medical Services Housing Scheme introduced in 2020 provided up to $300 per week in rental assistance for GPs, Allied Health Practitioners and their staff. With the anticipated exhaustion of funding, the City of Karratha commissioned consultants Ernst and Young to conduct a review of the scheme which found it had failed to substantially improve wait times or GP turnover despite helping to attract some staff. There was an average of just nine participants per year utilising the scheme with 2021-22 being the highest year of uptake at 15 participants. Since then, there has been a downward trajectory with only seven participants in 2023-24 and just two practices, three GPs and five AHPs accessing the scheme at the time of reporting. Despite the review findings, council opted to extend the scheme for another year at the cost of $155,000 to 2024-25 at the August general meeting. Meanwhile the Pilbara region continues to have one of the highest rates of GP turnover of all WA regions at 28 per cent. However, local GP practices reported significantly higher rates of 80 per cent in 2020 and 70 per cent in 2022 with AHP at 75 per cent in 2020 and 50 per cent in 2022. The City of Karratha has one of the lowest GP to population ratio in the country, according to the EY report. Based on these figures, the EY Report estimated the City would require an additional 14 full time GPs and 20 full time AHPs in total to meet future demand.