Cash incentives are being used to lure GPs to rural and remote communities to help boost the life expectancy of its peoples.
The bonuses range between $4,000 and $21,000, with groups now desperate to safeguard the future of rural health.
The Rural Advanced Skills funding streams have been established by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practice (RACGP).
The group has been working together to develop a National Rural Generalist Pathway and a strong national rural generalist workforce to tackle the challenges faced by rural health care providers.
A Rural Generalist medical practitioner is a General Practitioner (GP) who has specific expertise in providing medical care for rural and remote or isolated communities.
“The Rural Advanced Skills training program is one necessary component to address the support needed by rural generalist doctors across the country to help them gain the advanced skills they need to work in rural and remote communities,” said the Alliance chief executive Susi Tegen.
“Life expectancy is generally lower for people living in remote areas. The burden of disease also increases with remoteness.
“In remote areas, it [disease] is 1.4 times higher than major cities.”
Rural generalists provide training of future medical and allied workforces, skills maintenance, administration and compliance, and managing clinical responsibilities.
They have additional skills in areas such as emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, and anaesthetics.
They also have experience working in rural areas which can be more challenging than working in an urban setting.
“We invite eligible rural generalists with advanced skills in mental health, obstetrics, surgery, emergency medicine, First Nations health and anaesthetics to take advantage of the new Workforce Incentives Program which has incentives up to $21,000 a year,” Ms Tegen said.
Between $4,000 and $10,500 per year is available to doctors providing these advanced skills services, with a separate payment of $4,000 to $10,500 per year also available to eligible doctors providing emergency care.
Doctors may be eligible for both payments.
“We cannot continue to see the rural doctor workforce decline and these incentives are just one component of changes that are necessary to reverse the trend.
“The 30 per cent of Australia’s population that lives and works in rural, remote and regional areas deserve the same health and medical access that their urban counterparts enjoy,” Ms Tegen concluded.
This is not the first of its kind
The General Practice Rural Incentives Program (GPRIP) was introduced in July 2010 as a component of the Rural Health Workforce Strategy.
By July 2015 new eligibility criteria was introduced into the program to determine eligible locations and more effectively target areas that experience greater difficulty attracting and retaining GPs.
Eligible locations were determined according to residential population data from the 2011 Census.
Five remoteness categories were introduced, each attracting a different incentive payment rate.
At the time GP rural incentives program payment rates ranged from $4,500 to $60,000.
A 2022 report produced by the Australian Medical Association projected Australia will face a shortage of 10,600 GPs by 2031.
For more on this topic:
Get all the latest Newcastle news, sport, real estate, entertainment, lifestyle and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Newcastle Weekly Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
