A new report suggests pharmacists should have a greater role in providing immunisations for rural Australians who are not getting sufficient health care.

The Grattan Institute report has been compiled by a former head of the Department of Health, and has been met with criticism by the Rural Doctors Association.

Grattan Institute health program director Stephen Duckett says he'd also like to see the introduction of a new health worker, the physician assistant, to provide prescriptions and vaccinations in remote areas.

"There's a lot of things that GPs do, like no-referrals, no x-rays, just one or two medications prescribed, that pharmacists could do," he said.

"In fact 19 percent of the visits to GPs are of that kind."

Professor Duckett says taking some of the workload off GPs would help address the health care shortages in rural and remote areas.

The report showed areas of most concern included Tamworth, Goulburn, Mount Isa, as well as the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia.

However Rural Doctors Association president Sheila Cronin says procedures like immunisations are not a trivial task that can be added to the list of rural pharmacists' roles.

"That's just nonsense," she said.

"Immunisations are not trivial things, the patient has to be assessed properly, the vaccines have to be kept properly, they have to be administered properly, pharmicists haven't got time to do that sort of thing.

"To say this is going to be the solution is simplistic and doesn't stack up."

Professor Duckett says other countries have taken this approach and found it was feasible.

"Nurses can do immunisations right now, so if nurses can do it, why can't pharmacists do it," he said.

"Pharmacists do these sorts of things in other countries, they do them in Canada, New Zealand and England.

"I can't see why they can't do them in Australia."