Incentives for doctors to work in regional cities like Launceston are at the root of problems around access to affordable healthcare, a forum has heard.
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Northern health practitioners have called on the federal government to reconsider the model used to classify whether a location is considered a city, rural, remote or very remote.
Under the Health Department's Modified Monash Model, Launceston is classified the same as other cities like Hobart - based on population.
The model is used to determine the placing of medical practitioners in communities of greatest need, with incentives to recruit health professionals in rural and remote areas.
However Launceston GP Jerome Muir Wilson, who attended Monday's forum with Health Minister Greg Hunt, said the model didn't consider socioeconomic status.
"There needs to be improved access to GPs in the state's north and the cost for patients," Dr Muir Wilson said.
"That's something I am not sure if he [Greg Hunt] has the answers to fix.
"Because we [Launceston] are still currently classified the same as Hobart or Geelong, and it's a lot harder to recruit to places like Launceston and Lilydale, than it is in say Sandy Bay and Hobart.
"It needs to be re-classified. That would make a huge difference."
Australian Medical Association northern chairman Glenn Richardson, who also attended the forum, said the system had plagued Tasmania's potential to recruit health practitioners for years.
"We are being classified in a far too high a band and it's adversely affecting the recruitment of both GPs and specialists in Tasmania," Dr Richardson said.
"Why would a GP go to Lilydale to work, when they are classified in the same level as Hobart, where there is a tertiary hospital two kilometres away?
"We have put it to the minister that he's got it wrong, and they need to reconsider it."
Member for Bass Bridget Archer said the forum had covered a range of issues, including meeting community demand.
"The [health] minister also has noted a number of issues raised in the forum, including retaining doctors, the needs of some communities with complex health issues and the ability to access health care of which add to the LGH issue which I will continue to work with him on," she said.
"Regional access issues is a key priority that the minister has committed to resolve."
Dr Muir Wilson said the links between socioeconomic status and health outcomes needed to be given greater consideration.
"If in their rural loading they looked at the socio-economic status of the community, that would be a really great way of balancing the system," he said.
