Victorian farmers are increasingly becoming disadvantaged in gaining access to health services as more people move out of Melbourne into the region, especially in the state's rural areas.
ACM's recent rural health survey polled almost 770 regional, rural and remote residents from across Victoria, which outlined distances and waiting times as the biggest factors that needed addressing in relation to rural health.
On average Victorian farmers farmers are averaging 30kms while those who were not a farmer in regional areas travelled just over half that distance at 15km.
Victorian farmers are also travelling on average an extra 20km to access specialist medical services.
Crop and sheep farmer Justine Linton, Westmere said it was getting "really hard" to get a doctors appointment nowadays and often waited "a couple of weeks" for one.
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"Particularly with our kids, we... actively try not to go into a doctor for things like a common cold," she said.
Despite those regular long waits, she said there is pressure on those who live in rural areas to regularly see a doctor, or otherwise patients details would get archived, causing further delays.
"I tried to get an appointment for one of my sons at a GP recently but he had been archived simply because he hadn't regularly visited," Ms Linton said.
Ms Linton regularly travels to Ballarat for GP appointments, which is an hour's drive for her but she has also tried to go to the smaller town of Camperdown.
But she said "there was no difference" in waiting times for a doctor in the two areas.
Consistently changing doctors moving in and out of a community also had its impact.
"We don't have a specific GP for our family because we either haven't found a good enough one, or when we do find one, they move on," Ms Linton said.
"Young GPs tend to always want to move on."
Ms Linton said a service once provided by the Lake Bolac Bush Nursing Centre where a nurse would be sent straight away to a local home when an ambulance was called for babies and children serviced her area very well in the past.
"They would get a nurse to you in about 10 minutes... but due to safety [issues] they'd need two of them on all night, and they then stopped the service," she said.
On average, farmers had to travel 58km to see their GP, with one-fifth travelling between 80 to 150kms.
It was once a barrier for sheep and cattle farmer Vicki Murcott, Mudgegonga, who decided to be proactive when distances became too much to handle.
"For specialist or hospital services it is an hour to Wangaratta or Albury," she said.
"I changed my doctor from Wangaratta to Myrtleford to avoid this and it only takes 20 minutes now."
As a result she has seen a shorter wait time for doctors in the Alpine region.
"It used to take weeks but now I can get an appointment within three days," she said.
However, the implications of a growing regional population concerned Ms Murcott.
"It scares me that the nearest hospital is an hour away and given the chance of an accident it would take an ambulance another 30 minutes minimum from town," she said.
"This is probably nothing compared to some remote areas but our town is growing thanks to the city to country exodus and so should the health services so... we don't end up like the mess Melbourne is in."
The results of the survey were part of a wider national survey conducted by Australian Community Media.
On average Victorian farmers are averaging 30kms while those who were not a farmer in regional areas travelled just over 15km.
Victorian farmers are also travelling almost 29km extra to reach facilities for women to give birth with farmers on average travelling 53km compared to non farmers who average a travel distance of 24km.
National results from the survey included nearly a third of people having had positive experiences with telehealth but 40pc had also never used it.
While Ms Linton also said telehealth had been beneficial for psychologist appointments, she "would prefer visits for physical injuries or series illness".
Ms Murcott agreed telehealth had benefits and worked well for her dietician consultations.
Many respondents also specifically highlighted the lack of mental health services, but one-in-three were also unaware of what services were available in their community.
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