Peak medical body sounds alarm on emergency dept shutdown
The state’s peak medical body is calling for “detailed and costed strategies” to attract general practitioners in regional SA, as news emerges of a hospital emergency department being forced to shut down.
The call for immediate action followed the forced closure of Angaston District Hospital’s emergency department 15 times in 2025 as the impact of the state’s growing GP shortage takes hold.
Australian Medical Association SA president Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam said there was a deepening GP workforce crisis across regional South Australia with latest figures showing a shortfall of hundreds of doctors.
Subramaniam said acute problems were not isolated to Angaston and most regional areas were “struggling to get stable GP populations”.
“The Angaston closure is a symptom of a wider problem facing regional areas,” he said.
Data from the Department of Health and Aged Care identified that SA faced a shortfall of 376 full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs.
The shortage was most prevalent in regional areas with the AMA data identifying there were 66 FTE GPs per 100,000 in remote areas as opposed to 122 per 100,000 in major cities.
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“We don’t have enough GPs generally, but the shortage is felt acutely in regional areas because they rely on a small number of doctors,” Subramaniam said.
“They are highly trained and highly committed, but they are also expected to try and run the emergency department for the local hospital — there isn’t enough doctors to do so.”
Regional areas such as Mount Gambier have also faced GP shortages — with only three practices to support a population of around 28,000.
Mount Gambier GPs have also closed bookings for new patients forcing locals to travel into Victoria for care.
“Some patients are actually crossing the border to Warrnambool to get care,” Subramaniam said.
Port Broughton on the Yorke Peninsula has experienced difficulties in attracting young doctors in training, and Riverland towns including Karoonda and Mannum have struggled to find a long-term workforce.
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“There are a pool of doctors and potential workforce that we can try and attract which is the international medical graduates,” Subramaniam said.
“The process of credentialling should be made easier to get international graduates into clinical placement and bolster our workforce.”
AMA SA has called on both the state government and opposition to come up with positive solutions to “alleviate the problem”
However, Health Minister Chris Picton said the provision of GPs was the responsibility of the Federal Government across Australia.
“The State Government has had substantial success recruiting extra doctors for public hospitals — with 646 extra doctors above attrition now working compared to March 2022,” Picton said.
“While this is the Federal Government’s responsibility we are leaning in to assist and have been rolling out the Single Employer Model across the state which has already been very successful at boosting the number of GPs in the Riverland,” he said.
“We are also installing the South Australian Virtual Emergency Service system to help provide support for doctors overnight. Angaston Hospital sees on average of 10 people per day and there is another emergency department 15 minutes drive away,” Picton said.
“Unlike the former State Liberal Government which permanently closed the Gumeracha and Strathalbyn Hospital Emergency Departments we are keeping the Angaston Hospital ED open.”
Shadow Health Minister Ashton Hurn said regional communities deserved the same access to reliable emergency departments as people in the city.
“Any reduction in service, particularly in regional areas like ours, is deeply concerning — especially at a time when our health system is already under such pressure,” Hurn said.
“Clearly there are workforce challenges, and they need to be addressed head on and that’s why, as an opposition, we’ve been calling for stronger workforce incentives to be put on the table,” she said.
“If the government doesn’t act, I worry we’ll see a gradual deterioration of healthcare services across regional communities – something we simply cannot allow to happen.”
