The ARA is urging all parties to back targeted workforce fixes, warning shortages are driving long waits and limiting access to care.
On the eve of the South Australian election, rheumatology leaders have called on all parties to move beyond broad campaign commitments and address structural gaps in specialist care.
The Australian Rheumatology Association (ARA) wants targeted reforms that improve access, reduce waiting times and strengthen long-term workforce sustainability.
“Rheumatology is a consultative specialty where targeted workforce investment translates directly into additional clinic capacity and shorter waiting lists,” ARA SA branch president Dr David Bursill said.
“We’re asking for practical, immediately deployable measures that strengthen metropolitan services and improve equity for regional patients.”
Currently, South Australia has approximately 1.2 rheumatologists per 100,000 people with this number needing to increase to at least 22 per 100,000 to meet the current demand.
The ARA has put forward five key election asks that seek commitment to priority areas that increase appointment throughput, strengthen multidisciplinary care and build sustainable supply via training pathways.
These include:
- Two additional rheumatology consultant FTE within Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) to reduce outpatient waits and address distribution inequity across other LHNs which would cost $700,000–$900,000 per year.
- Two additional advanced rheumatology training positions to help grow the local pipeline and protect future service capacity, costing$170,000–$200,000 per trainee per year.
- An increase in supervised practice positions for overseas-trained rheumatologists (SIMGs) which has been argued as the most cost-effective ways to address workforce shortages at a cost of $150,000–$210,000 per SIMG.
- Two rheumatology clinical nurse specialist positions to assist in strengthening team-based care, improve care coordination, and enable safer monitoring pathways, costing $240,000–$280,000 per year.
- Expand outpatient capacity and regional access to flexible clinic space and funded outreach. This would increase public clinic throughput and reduce travel burden for regional patients. The cost is estimated at $14,400–$24,000 per year per outreach service for consulting rooms, with one service potentially providing 400–450 additional consultations per year.
The ARA maintained these proposals were achievable within existing budget frameworks and represent a pragmatic approach to improving access while reducing downstream costs associated with delayed diagnosis and suboptimal disease control.
“Rheumatology is relatively low infrastructure – we primarily need clinic rooms and multidisciplinary support – so well-designed workforce investment can rapidly translate into more appointments and shorter waits,” said Dr Bursill.
