Unique program to secure next generation of GPs
Medical graduates have been given the ultimate incentive to train as a GP, busting the myth about the job and why it is anything but a simple specialty.
Eligible Victorian medical graduates will be offered grants of up to $40,000 to encourage them to train as general practitioners.
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas will announce on Friday that applications are open for the unique grants totalling $32 million to graduates starting a GP training program in Victoria.
Funded by the Victorian Government, there will be a total of 800 grants with half available this year and half in 2025.
It will be open to medical graduates already practising in hospitals as junior medical officers who have made the decision to do their specialty training in general practice, including those accepted into training programs on or after 27 November 2022.
Successful applicants can use the money at their own discretion which is designed to help ease the financial burden of the disparity between the pay of specialty registrars and general practice registrars, but $10,000 must be set aside to help cover the cost of exam fees during GP training.
“This is definitely something we are celebrating,” Anita Munoz said.
The Victorian chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Dr Munoz said it indicates the Victorian Government’s understanding and willingness to invest in the future of general practice.
“It follows many discussions we have had about securing the workforce of the future,” she said.
“A bigger issue that challenges recruitment into the general practice space is the disparity in earnings for registrars once they enter their specialty training programs.
“The Government has taken that on board and recognises our health system needs a very robust general practice and that we need good candidates entering the profession to secure our future.”
The program, an Australian first, comes as interest in general practice as a career for medical graduates is declining nationally.
The latest Medical Deans of Australia report of final year medical students revealed just 13 per cent listed general practice as their first career choice – the lowest in more than a decade.
Dr Munoz said the myth that general practice is a simple specialty needs to be busted.
“It is anything but,” she said, adding general practice was the purview of people who can manage deep complexity in patients across all ages.
“This program is a meaningful acknowledgment that general practice registrars, when they go into the community, do experience a drop in their income. That can be up to a $50,000 reduction in income between one registrar type and the other,” Dr Munoz said.
“Many trainees are older, they may have partners and financial commitments or are planning to start families so the financial implication of a drop in income is substantial.”
Graduates can apply for a grant directly through the websites of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine or the RACGP once they have been accepted and enrolled into one of the relevant GP training programs.
The Victorian Rural Generalist Program and several medical specialist training programs are also in place to better distribute doctors across regional and rural areas.
“So many Victorians have built trusted relationships with their local GP over many years, but we know too many people can’t get in to see a GP when they need one,” Ms Thomas said
“These grants are providing the incentive graduates need to consider a career in general practice and will ensure Victoria has the GP workforce we need both now and into the future.”
Dr Munoz said it was hoped other states would follow the Victorian lead.
