A Government incentive scheme to get more doctors out bush has seen money go to large regional centres, depriving smaller towns, according to Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash.

The General Practice Rural Incentive Payment Scheme was set up to target larger coastal cities like Cairns and Townsville, Senator Nash says.

But on a visit to check the progress of the scheme last week, Senator Nash said there had been “an unfair distribution of the resources”.

So, $50 million will be diverted form the larger centres and pushed out to rural and remote towns with fewer than 50,000 people.

Senator Nash said doctors in 450 rural and remote towns will receive increased subsidy payments from July this year, in a further attempt to reduce the gap between rural and metro Australia.

“We were having the same payments going to doctors in large towns as to doctors in the smaller towns,” she said.

She said the redirected funds would attract “the right doctors, with the right skills to the right places”.

Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said it was a good move.

“We've known for some time that the geographical locations and rules around these payments had a lot of discrepancies in them and the new model is certainly an improved model,” he told the ABC.

“Our main objective is to make sure that we don't see the Rural Incentive Payment changes disadvantage important services and that we make sure that we maintain those services where they are needed in rural communities.

“I'm sure this will go a long way towards improving things, but obviously there's no one-size-fits-all for this sort of problem.”

The newly re-directed money does not come with any actual targets for bolstering health services, but Senator Nash says she wants to see more Aboriginal health workers in particular, to improve services in Indigenous communities.

She said it could be bolstered in a future policy development.

Senator Nash is currently attending the 13th National Rural Health Conference in Darwin.