GPs across the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains have raised with me their fears about patients facing long waits to be seen and doctors and staff being stretched like never before. They call it a crisis, and it isn't caused by just COVID, although a lack of a hub in the electorate created extra work for GPs. But even before COVID some had closed their books to new patients. A change by the Morrison government in 2019 means that the Hawkesbury and most of the Blue Mountains are no longer considered part of a priority area for trainee GPs. I met with the team at Katoomba's medical practice. Dr Aman Rana said, 'We miss out on doctors because we aren't considered regional.' He and other GPs say it's a struggle to find registrars to come here as the area shares the same zoning as metropolitan Sydney, and it's hard to attract students from regional medical and nursing schools. Overseas doctors can't do their training either. Dr Rana says that, while some local doctors and nurses are at retirement age, others are simply burning out and none of them are being replaced.

GPs can be a vital stable influence in a person's health care. Our area needs to be reclassified as a matter of urgency to help our local GPs respond in the way that they need to and to see their patients in a timely way. They need to be fully supported and resourced to meet the needs of our community.