The director of an Albury medical centre says it has become "near impossible" to bring medical specialists to the region now that Regional Express (Rex) is no longer flying between Melbourne and Albury.
Ami Assigal is the founder and director of Albury's Innovate Health, which she opened in 2020 following the closure of the town's only after-hours clinic.
Ms Assigal regularly flies between Albury and Melbourne to conduct business, and her clinic — as well as many others in the region — frequently has specialists coming up for the day to offer their expertise.
But then Rex airlines announced on May 19 that, after 39 years of flying between Melbourne and Albury, they would no longer be operating on that route from May 29.
"Every time I fly to Albury I'm always on the flight with other specialists," Ms Assigal said.
Now that Rex has dropped the route, there is only one flight into Albury from Melbourne and one flight out per day, operated by Qantas.
But Ms Assigal said for anyone coming up for a day of consultation, the timing was "all wrong".
The flight to Albury is at 7pm, the flight to Melbourne at 7am.
Now, specialists have to stay in the region for two nights to get one day's work in.
"There's such a low number of specialists coming to Albury already, so that was a part of our pulling point — you can come in the morning on Rex and leave in the afternoon," Ms Assigal said.
For medical professionals who are already stretched, she said it was an impossible ask.
The blame game
Rex airlines announced it could no longer afford to operate on the route after Qantas moved into the space.
"This route is the casualty of Qantas' illegal predatory behaviour to drive out competition," said Rex deputy chairman John Sharp.
"Sadly, for the community, we will soon see Qantas providing only a token service."
But Qantas refuted the claims, saying they were never flooding the market with just six return flights per week.
"We found out at the same time as the rest of the community, and we are reviewing our ability to add more flights on this route."
But Ms Assigal said regardless of who was to blame, the changes have had an immediate impact on regional medicine, with a dramatic drop on the quota of specialists, GPs, and allied health travelling from Melbourne to Albury.
"To attract a specialist to come to Albury, you've got Buckley's [chance]," she said.
More local specialists needed
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia said changes in regional flights, particularly amid the pandemic, had a huge impact on patients, with many now having to travel to metro areas to receive specialist care.
CEO Peta Rutherford said a significant amount of rural and regional healthcare relied on the fly-in, fly-out method, and that needed to change.
Ms Rutherford said the ideal situation would be for specialists to see the benefits of moving into regional communities on a more permanent basis.
"I think one of the challenges is getting some of these consult specialists to understand what a great lifestyle it is in these large regional communities," she said.
