Northern Territory MP, Warren Snowden, has been given the new portfolio of Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery.

Mr Snowden previously served as the Minister for Defence Personnel, and was named last week as being involved in a meeting held in the office of recently-resigned Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, between the head of Defence health and Mr Fitzgibbon's brother who was representing a US-based health insurance firm.

Mr Fitzgibbon's departure from Cabinet created an opening for a major mid-term reshuffle of the front bench, although the major rural portfolios of agriculture and environment, climate change and water were unaffected.

The Government announced major funding for new incentives to attract doctors to work in regional areas in last month's Federal Budget.

Mr Snowden says his appointment is acknowledgement that the Government "can do more" in the area of rural health.

"I think the Government is doing quite a bit at the moment but I'm conscious of the need for us to explain to people what we are doing," Mr Snowden said.

"There's been significant movement to try and address issues to do with workforce and accessibility services and we'll continue clearly in that vein.

"But I don't want to make any rusted judgements about any issue in particular; I want to get a good understanding of what the issues are."

Mr Snowden said over the years he has had a strong relationship with key rural health lobby groups and associations.

"There are shortages of doctors and there have been significant incentive packages announced just in the most recent Budget and we hope they'll make a difference but we won't know until they're put in place," Mr Snowden said.

"The Government has had it in its mind for some time to do something specific like this to deal with the health problems in regional areas.

"And with me having a responsibility now to focus on, it should help us."

Mr Snowden says, coming from Alice Springs, he is fully aware of the difficulties in accessing health services.

"I'm not sure we're going to solve everything in 12 months, but I think getting better access to services and having more practitioners in the regions is a target for all of us.

"We need to be thinking about how to achieve a sustainable long-term outcome to improve the health opportunities for people who live in regional areas."