Gore Health chief executive Karl Metzler said this about the Rural Services Review Report that was released by WellSouth yesterday.
The report outlined the challenges of rural primary healthcare and made recommendations to support it.
Mr Metzler, who was interviewed during the creation of the report, said it highlighted and valued the rural health sector.
However, he also said it could have been "written in 2010".
"It can be a great report and make wonderful recommendations. But it remains in the category of [television satire] Utopia unless it’s backed up by meaningful resources.
"That report could have been written in 2010. The issues are not dissimilar."
He often found those who funded the report would not fund the recommendations made, he said.
"We are just going over the same ground once again," he said.
"It does feel like same old, same old," Mr Metzler said.
The report identified inequities in service provision, major pressures on funding and workforce, unsustainable high levels of clinical risk and barriers for patients to access care when and where they needed it.
"To be honest, you could almost call it a groundhog day report."
It recommended five key areas facing patients and providers in rural areas that needed to be addressed.
The key areas were: sustainable development of the rural workforce, addressing 24/7 urgent and unplanned care, delivery of equitable patient access for rural people with services located closer to home, efficient transport options for patients at an equitable cost; and achievement of manageable clinical risk for providers and patients.
He believed the most important issue was left off that list — financial sustainability and viability.
"I think we are seeing it across the country, particularly in rural general practice; [we] are really struggling for financial sustainability and viability."
"Number one should be funding and resourcing to implement the five most important changes they mentioned."
The viability of rural general practice had radically changed in the past two to three years.
"I think the financial sustainability issues have got significantly worse on the back of economic pressures that the primary sector are facing."
The main "driver" of this issue was the lack of health professionals, Mr Metzler said.
The Rural Service Review Report was led by former Gore district mayor Tracy Hicks.
"The southern region is vast, our population is spread out with much of that rural," Mr Hicks said.
"Those who live rurally experience more barriers to access care — both secondary and primary — yet funding doesn’t recognise the distinct challenges our communities face," Mr Hicks said.
