Undergraduate and postgraduate medical schools, University Departments of Rural Health, Rural Clinical Schools and Departments of General Practice all have a vital role to play in augmenting the esteem in which general practice is held and its attractiveness to the profession. 

But it doesn’t stop there. As we progress towards profession-led training, we’re looking forward to collaborating with you in the delivery of the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) program from 1 February 2023. There are clear opportunities to pursue this year. 

These could include joint appointments, research collaboratives and more. We don’t want to be bound by our own imagination in identifying these opportunities – after all, a true collaboration would include your ideas also. To this end, we are meeting with the sector in what will be a first of many opportunities to talk about our training model and explore ideas that will ensure our approach remains fit for the future of general practice.

This appetite to collaborate builds upon the solid foundations that regional training organisations (RTOs) have already laid. By continuing to work with many of their staff into the future, our educational institutions, and GPs themselves, we have a wonderful opportunity to influence healthcare in our communities.
 
We’ve been meeting GP registrars, supervisors and practice managers across the country in a number of forums. Of significant interest has been professional development, payment and support information, and potential changes to processes. It has always been our goal to make the transition to profession-led training as smooth as possible.
 
The signing of the AGPT contract with the Commonwealth Government in September provided certainty about our model and allowed us to commence recruiting from the RTOs and also externally. Regional state and territory-based support teams remain core to general practice training and will be underpinned with national leadership and infrastructure.
 
A key component of the RACGP approach is training pipelines. We believe that training pipelines are an effective solution to workforce distribution issues.

Key aspects of the RACGP profession-led community based training model


We are looking forward to working closely with universities and medical schools to increase opportunities for students to experience the diverse scope of general practice, early and often throughout their undergraduate and postgraduate medical school journeys.
 
Feedback on your areas of interest is welcome via our feedback form.

Georgina van de Water
Chief General Practice Training Officer