News

Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Health Strategy aims to ensure equitable access to women’s healthcare across Australia

RANZCOG

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Updated

19 April 2024

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists has launched its Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Health Strategy at the RANZCOG 2024 Regional Symposium. The Strategy recognises the unique challenges of providing women’s health care in rural, regional and remote Australia, underscoring the importance of ensuring consistent and timely access to equitable, quality obstetric and gynaecological services to all Australians, regardless of where they live.

Women and families across rural, regional and remote Australia continue to face barriers to accessing essential women’s health services, causing disparate financial, logistical and emotional burden. Constrained access to services, lack of childcare or transport, and other socio-economic restrictions are just a handful of the myriad challenges faced by women in rural areas. This is further exacerbated when examined under an intersectional lens.

From a rural, regional and remote workforce perspective, the maldistribution and lack of upskilling opportunities remain major challenges to maintaining safe and equitable women’s health services. Professional isolation and a lack of support networks have also had an adverse impact on workforce retention, which in turn has a knock-on-effect on succession planning and continuity of service provision.

Strategic priorities

The RANZCOG Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Health Strategy identifies four strategic priorities, and specific and measurable actions which the College will implement to help address the service and workforce challenges that those in these communities face:

RANZCOG will support the delivery of rural, regional and remote education and training opportunities that will facilitate life-long learning and development for College Members and other health professional groups to help support women in rural, regional and remote communities.

RANZCOG will advocate for high quality, equitable maternity and gynaecological services across rural, regional, remote and very remote Australia.

RANZCOG will advocate for equitable maternity and gynaecological services that are culturally safe for First Nations women, and their families.

RANZCOG will create mutually beneficial relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders to help promote equitable rural, regional and remote women’s health services.

Developed in consultation with College Members, the RANZCOG Regional Fellows Committee, the RANZCOG Associate Procedural Committee, and the RANZCOG Australian O&G Workforce Working Group, and informed by the College’s 2023 Rural Women’s Health Roundtable, the strategy provides a dedicated framework to guide the College’s initiatives, ensuring that the complex and multifaceted needs of those receiving and delivering health services in rural, regional and remote contexts are effectively prioritised.

Associate Professor Jared Watts, Chair of the RANZCOG Australian O&G Workforce Working Group said:

“Maintaining equitable, high quality obstetric and gynaecological services in rural, regional, and remote areas is essential. The strategic priorities outlined in this strategy will help focus the College on effectively addressing the health service and workforce challenges that are still prevalent in many communities.”

Highlighting the College’s commitment to championing improved health outcomes, RANZCOG convened over three-hundred delegates in Glenelg, South Australia, last weekend for their largest Regional Symposium to date. Presentations and discussions centred around how we can move forward together to provide the highest level of women’s health care in rural, regional, and remote contexts. Sessions included sustainability in regional health care, an update on pelvic pain management, advancing equitable healthcare, and abortion care in regional Australia.