The body that represents more than 90% of Australia’s GPs has today released its major 2020 vision for rural doctors. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ (RACGP) Rural Generalism 2020 position statement reflects a commitment to policies that encourage recruitment and retention of general practitioners in rural and remote Australia.
RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel said “working in rural and remote Australia is a fabulous career choice.
“General practitioners are generalists by definition. And rural generalists are rural GPs working to the full scope of their practice with skill sets informed by the needs of the community they serve.
“ Rural Generalism 2020 demonstrates our strong commitment to policies and structures that enable GPs and their families to make a meaningful contribution to the health of rural communities.
“This position statement reinforces the education and skill building opportunities GPs require to work in rural and remote Australia enabling them to provide high quality patient care.
“While we support a national generalist pathway, we also acknowledge that states and territories need flexibility within this and the pathway can’t be one size fits all.”
Background
The RACGP recognises that in many rural and remote communities across Australia, GPs with advanced skill sets provide the only access to ongoing specialist medical services. Examples of these services include emergency medicine, mental health, aged care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, palliative care, anaesthesia, surgery and obstetrics.
The term ‘rural generalist’ has emerged, in large part, from the development of various state-based workforce models that are seeking to address patients’ needs in rural communities. However, just as Australia has a variety of jurisdictional health delivery models, it also has disparities in the prevalence and burden of chronic disease across different communities. What works in one jurisdiction may not work or replicate results in another.
The rural generalist training pathway
The RACGP supports efforts to increase the number of doctors working in rural and remote Australia – as opposed to mechanisms that fragment the rural general practice workforce, or lead to a separately recognised specialty based on location. All initiatives to increase the number of rural doctors, and improve access of care, must include general practice skills at their core. As such, training should be delivered through the existing Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) program and the Remote Vocational Training Scheme (RVTS).
For more details about Rural Generalism 2020 please visit www.racgp.org.au