TOWNS as remote as Licola would be classified as "inner regional'' and stripped of rural medical services under a Federal Government plan to change the measures used to identify areas requiring medical assistance.
Local doctors predict Wellington shire residents could find themselves having to drive to Melbourne to see a doctor if the changes go through.
The Federal Government is looking to introduce a new system to classify areas eligible for rural health funding, the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA).
The ARIA methodology uses a town's geographical distance from the closest service centre to determine its rurality and its need for government assistance.
Under the ARIA index, Sale, Yarram and as far up as Licola is classified as inner regional, which means local health services will become ineligible for government funding designed to boost access to medical practitioners in remote areas.
Doctors have been told this system would come into effect on July 1 and some local doctors are already receiving letters telling them they have lost their rural subsidy for their practice nurses.
East Gippsland Division of GPs chairman Dr David Monash said local GPs would lose a range of subsidies and it could drive many doctors out of town.
"Each GP will lose $30,000 to $40,000 in bonuses to keep them here,'' he said.
"It will be, and it already is, hard to recruit doctors, it'll be even harder to keep the doctors we have and it's likely we will see a dramatic decline in bulk billing.
"There will also be a dramatic reduction in practice nurses.
"We will lose access to the visiting medical specialists outreach program, where 20 specialists currently visit under the program in Sale.''
Local surgeon and Central Gippsland Health Service medical staff chairman Dr Adrian Aitken said the effects of the ARIA change would be disastrous.
"This act of reclassification, drawn up by a bureaucrat in Melbourne or Canberra, is an act of dismantling the non-metropolitan health system,'' he said.
"To consider places like Licola and Sale to be metro is bizarre in the extreme.
"It's a very serious concern and a worry to medical staff that this change is being mooted, let alone talked about.''
Dr Aitken said if the changes went through, people would eventually be forced to drive to Melbourne to see a GP.
He said a shortage of GPs would also put more pressure on the hospital system.
"To class Gippsland as a non rural area in the short term will make things very difficult, in the long term it will diminish the workforce,'' he said.
"The medical workforce is ageing rapidly and there will be a worsening shortage.
"To get new blood to come out to a non-metropolitan area and work out of their comfort zone will be difficult with these changes, the more carrots you can dangle the better.''
Victoria and Tasmania are the only two states that are badly affected by the ARIA classification.
Gippsland South MLA Peter Ryan said the Nationals had written to Health Minister Daniel Andrews urging him to lobby the Federal Government for change.
"His response has been to play a straight bat,'' Mr Ryan said.
"This is an urgent matter...we risk substantial damage to the structure of the rural health system across Victoria.''
Mr Ryan said the ARIA classification needed to be reviewed for Victoria.
"The index makes the very incorrect assumption that isolation can be judged by distance alone,'' he said.
Licola has been classified as inner regional...despite the fact that it is one of the most remote places in Victoria and is two hours from the nearest hospital.
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