Mayor Steve Toms said: “It provides a recognition that the community is supportive of attracting doctors  and of the need to provide incentives to attract doctors to the area.

“The community does value the contribution that GPs make, often working very long hours.”

He said this year’s grant had gone to helping Dr James White come to Glen Innes.

The announcement of the money comes amid a row about the provision of doctors for the hospital in Glen Innes, with the Greens organising a petition for one to be on site full-time. At the moment, temporary doctors are flown in from Sydney to cover and paid $5000 a weekend for the work.

The Greens are pushing the issue vigorously and say it has been raised in the state parliament.

The difficulty in recruiting new GPs to Glen Innes is replicated across rural Australia.

It matters particularly in Glen Innes because the hospital needs particular specialisms to be able to continue offering basic healthcare. If there are no anesthetists, specialists in childbirth or surgeons among the GPs, then it becomes much harder to justify having departments at the hospital for mothers to give birth or to have treatments involving surgery and anesthetics.

Similarly, if GPs feel unable to be on call at the hospital (say because they already work long hours), it becomes harder and more expensive to provide a basic local hospital service.

Earlier in the year, the Hospital Auxiilary (made up of willing volunteers from the community) revealed that it had raised $50,000 for the hospital. 

An academic study just out found that people in country areas are more likely to die of heart attacks than people in bigger towns and cities.