She is energetic, enthusiastic and understands the challenges a shortage of rural doctors presents rural, regional and remote Australia. Today we talk with the National Rural Health Commissioner Ruth Stewart, who is committed to developing policy advice that will address the problems facing the one-in-four Australian who live outside the metropolitan areas. In her first annual report Ruth Stewart wrote: “Too often our discussions of rural health status and rural health care focus on deficiencies therein. If we only focus on the problems, we will not create a better system. We need to draw upon the strengths of rural communities and the characteristics that have enabled these communities to persist against the odds. "In short, we must take a strengths-based approach to find the solutions. As my term progresses, I am becoming more and more convinced that solutions to the challenges inherent to provision of health care in rural and remote communities will be found in the creation of multidisciplinary primary health care teams that are place based and co-designed by the communities they serve. "Funding should directly support the multidisciplinary primary health care teams that will keep Australians healthy.” Annual report 2020–21 – National Rural Health Commissioner  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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