Australia’s general practice leaders have warned that accessible and affordable healthcare is under threat in communities where general practice is in short supply.
While the Government’s commitment to doubling the Practice Incentive Payment (PIP) for general practice training and an investment of $52 million to provide grants that improve rural and remote teaching infrastructure have been welcomed by United General Practice Australia (UGPA), it believes that these measures must be significantly expanded in order to provide high quality training for the future generation of doctors, and meet the needs of patients and communities.
The UGPA implores the Government to develop appropriate measures to properly distribute the GP workforce nationally to ensure all Australians can easily access quality primary health care services through general practice.
At a recent UGPA meeting in Canberra, general practice leaders agreed that an increase in general practice vocational training places directed to areas of critical community need must remain a high priority of the new Government. This must be backed by significant increases to GP supervisor and training capacity, combined with attractive models to encourage junior doctors to undertake general practitioner training.
The UGPA has previously called on the immediate past Government to increase the number of general practice training positions to 1 700 per year to ensure that all Australian communities have access to high quality and affordable general practice services.
To deliver the workforce that these under supplied communities require – often those in rural and remote areas – UGPA supports initiatives that encourage building capacity and innovative quality training practices located in areas of high community need, including flexible infrastructure grants, improved professional development opportunities and better payments for the teaching of registrars.
Improved financial and non-financial support for registrars and their families who move to communities of need should match additional supervisor and practice funding to recognise the significant personal and professional commitment undertaken, in addition to the challenges faced in rural general practice.
As a result of previous vocational training system places, it is only now that general practice is experiencing an increase in the numbers of GPs that are coming through the vocational training system. It is critical that these incoming GPs are supported in addressing the critical maldistribution issue facing outer metropolitan, rural and remote communities.