Shoalhaven Family Medical Centres principals Dr Hao and Annette Pham have helped shape the health component of the federal budget that will be handed down next week.
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The heads of four medical practices in the Shoalhaven have twice met with Health Minister Mark Butler to discuss the challenges they face recruiting doctors to regional areas.
Federal Member for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips, said those meetings had resulted in changes to the budget.
"Annette and Hao have had great input into measures to strengthen Medicare in the budget," she said.
That will focus on making primary care and GPs more accessible, according to Mrs Phillips, with the government encouraging more nurses and mental health nurses to work in general practices.
"Part of this is about supporting people in communities so we have less people going to hospital if they don't need to, because they can't get a GP appointment," she said.
Mrs Phillips said there was still more to be done to strengthen Medicare, "but some of the changes we have made already have made a big difference".
The changes have seen 13 new doctors added to the staff across the four Shoalhaven Family Medical Centres practices in the past few years, after hitting crisis point in 2020.
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Mrs Pham said at that stage they were so short-staffed patients were having to wait four to six weeks to see their chosen doctor, while some practices had closed their books.
That wait had dropped to just a week, while the practices always had appointments open each day for emergencies and to see children, she said.
Dr and Mrs Pham put on a lunch on Wednesday, May 3, to thank Mrs Phillips for her work to cut through red tape so more overseas-trained doctors could be employed by the bulk-billing practices.
"You have made a significant difference to the care we can give to our patients," Dr Pham said.
However he pointed out there was a lot more to be done.
Mrs Pham illustrated that point when she said there were overseas-trained doctors and even specialists in Australia who were pumping petrol or working menial jobs because they could not get supervised positions.
Dr Pham has taken on an overseas-trained doctor requiring supervision, despite saying it was costing the practice many thousands of dollars through lost appointments.
Meanwhile Mrs Pham said a mental health nurse who had been working at the medical centres for many years had to leave because her qualifications were not broad enough to meet regulatory requirements.
"There's so many issues we've got to fix, but that's what we're going to do," Mrs Phillips said.
