When mother-of-seven Polly Cousens and her family moved to Tasmania's Derwent Valley 12 months ago, she tried to make an appointment with the local doctor's surgery just minutes from their home.
But she was told no waitlist, the books were closed, and they would have to go somewhere else.
Instead, they make a two-hour round trip south to their old clinic.
"I and all of the kids are neurodivergent, it's either ADHD, autism or learning disabilities," Ms Cousens said.
"That means we have to connect with a lot of allied health professionals, there are medications, there are referrals to paediatricians, there's seeing the GP to get NDIS paperwork filled out.
"One of my daughters has asthma so that sort of needs to be monitored. Then there's just the everyday normal childhood illnesses.
"It's just entirely inadequate in an area growing so quickly. It's frustrating and it's disappointing really.
"What it comes down to [is] we don't have access to adequate health care, and that shouldn't happen in Australia."
The doctor's surgery at New Norfolk has struggled for years to meet the needs of a growing community.
Doctor shortage decades in the making
AMA Tasmanian President John Saul said there was a shortage of general practitioners across the country.
"Some of our inner-city areas are struggling… but especially in our rural areas we are really short," he said.
Dr Saul said there were 60 advertised positions for GPs in Tasmania but he estimated 150 doctors were actually needed across the state.
The AMA said the number of medical students expressing interest in general practice as a career is declining.
In 2019, only 15 per cent of students identified general practice as their preferred speciality.
In the past, around 50 per cent of students chose a career as a GP.
The AMA said GP registrars were paid around $500 per week less than their hospital-based registrar colleagues.
He said the problem had been decades in the making.
"It's going back to successive governments, reducing training programs and reducing the Medicare rebate," he said.
He is hopeful the new government's plans to strengthen Medicare will begin to address the issue.
Remote community takes 'kitchen-table approach' to tackling health shortages
Despite being far from a major centre, the Tasman Peninsula now has two full-time doctors working from Monday to Friday.
But the local clinic cannot provide after-hours care and there have been other areas of need on the Peninsula, like mental health support.
That is where a community group called Tasman Voice for Health is stepping in to help.
The group has taken a kitchen-table approach to gathering information from the local community about its health needs.
"That's simply enabling the community to have conversations amongst themselves without any consultants or bureaucrats or external people there," said Bruce Levett from Health Consumers Tasmania.
"They ran about 13 kitchen tables, they spoke to over 80 people on the Tasman.
"It was quite empowering for us to see it roll out."
Mr Levett said the group was working to spread the word on all the health services available on the Peninsula.
"It could be the pharmacist or the GP, it could be a cafe or a service station, if someone is asking about where a service is, then the community here can direct and support people in different ways."
Where there are shortages in health services, Tasman Voice for Health is working to address them.
"We've actually got the Royal Flying Doctors service coming down here now on a fortnightly basis three days a week to provide mental health counselling for young people, which is really very fabulous," said Hannah Fielder from Tasman Voice for Health.
"Also the GP surgery has now got a resident psychologist who is working three days a week as well so we're already filling a gap."
The group also aims to prescribe social solutions to health issues.
"A GP can actually prescribe an activity or social connection that's not necessarily a biomedical approach to solving their health problems," said Ms Fielder.
That could mean recommending a walking club for someone struggling with obesity.
"If food nutrition is an issue for somebody, then a GP might say, 'Here is a cooking class', or 'Here's a group that grows vegetables'," Mr Levett said.
Sallie Creese from the Peninsula Art Group said the Eaglehawk Neck Hall not only hosted painting classes but other activities like dance and exercise sessions.
"Every day there is something on and it just brings the community together and just helps mentally as well as physically for all age groups," she said.
Tasman Voice for Health is not expecting large increases in government funding for health, but it is hoping for a greater say in how that money is spent.
