Politics, policy and action: lessons from rural GP advocacy in Ireland.

Context: Ireland has one of the most rural populations in Europe. Rurality presents challenges when accessing health services but should not be perceived as problematic and in need of a structural fix. Structural urbanism where health care is viewed as a commodity for individuals, rather than an infrastructure for populations, innately favours larger urban populations and has detrimental outcomes for rural health.

Exploring the ideas of young healthcare professionals from selected countries regarding rural proofing.

Introduction: Globally, most countries struggle to meet the health needs of rural communities. This has resulted in rural areas performing poorly when compared to urban areas in terms of a range of health indicators. There have been few coherent or systematic strategies that target rural communities and address their needs within the rural context.

Valuing rural hospitals - the Australian experience.

Introduction: Over many years in Australia, public hospitals were funded on historical grounds with about 40% of running costs provided by the national government. In 2010, a national reform agreement established the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) to put in place activity-based funding, where the national government contribution was based on activity and National Weighted Activity Units (NWAU) and a National Efficient Price (NEP). Rural hospitals were exempted from this on the assumption that they were less efficient and activity more variable.

Rural health frontiers: exploring insights, lessons, and priority actions identified through a global 40-speaker webinar series on rural health equity.

Introduction: Tackling rural health inequities requires equity-oriented approaches within health systems (eg across human resources, service delivery, information systems, health products, governance, financing) and action at cross-sectoral levels and with communities to address social and environmental determinants.

Methods: During the July 2021 to March 2022 period, more than 40 experts contributed to an 8-part webinar series on rural health equity, sharing experiences, insights and lessons learnt for both systems strengthening and action on determinants. The webinar series was convened by WHO in collaboration with WONCA's Rural Working Party, OECD and agencies in the UN Inequalities Task Team subgroup on rural inequalities.

The value of extended short-term medical training placements in smaller rural and remote locations on future work location: a cohort study.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of extended short-term medical training placements in small rural and remote communities on postgraduate work location.

Design And Setting: Cohort study of medical graduates of The University of Queensland, Australia.

Participants: Graduating medical students from 2012 to 2021 who undertook a minimum of 6 weeks training in a small rural or remote location.

The Limerick Declaration on Rural Health Care 2022.

The 19th World Rural Health Conference, hosted in rural Ireland and the University of Limerick, with over 650 participants coming from 40 countries and an additional 1600 engaging online, has carefully considered how best rural communities can be empowered to improve their own health and the health of those around them. The conference also considered the role of national health systems and all stakeholders, in keeping with the commitments made through the Sustainable Development Goals and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health as one of the fundamental rights of every human being. This conference declaration, the Limerick Declaration on Rural Healthcare, is designed to inform rural communities, academics and policymakers about how to achieve the goal of delivering high quality health care in rural and remote areas most effectively, with a particular focus on the Irish healthcare system.

Fellowship of the Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine (FACRRM) Assessment: a review of the first 12 years.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. This paper provides an overview of the first 12 years of the formal assessment program of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM).

Academic performance of third-year medical students learning in rural settings.

Objective: Investigate the academic performance of medical students in rural and remote discipline rotations by rurality of placement.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Rural and remote clinical placement locations in Queensland, Australia.