New payment incentives offering doctors up to $21,000 to move rural

Healthcare workers have been offered generous incentives to take their much-needed skills to Australia’s rural towns.

Healthcare workers are being offered generous incentives to take their much-needed skills to Australia’s rural towns.

With much of Australia suffering from a critical lack of general practitioners, the incentives will add as much as $21,000 to eligible rural generalists and GPs who make the trek out of the cities.

The new federal government payment, the Workforce Incentives Program for Rural Advanced Skills, is intended to encourage doctors to take their skills to areas where they are needed.

It is hoped to attract doctors with qualifications in areas such as mental health, obstetrics, surgery, anaesthetics and First Nations health.

Many regional and rural centres desperately need healthcare professionals. Picture: Getty Images

Payments between $4000 and $10,500 per year are available to doctors providing advanced skills services, with a separate payment between $4000 and $10,500 per year on offer for eligible doctors providing emergency care.

Some doctors may even be eligible for both payments, and the payments will be scaled based on how remote the location of the doctors and how needed their services are.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said the incentive would be a “win-win” for doctors and patients, and more people would be able to access better healthcare in their own community.

“We are offering more incentives for those doctors who have worked hard to gain additional skills to use these qualifications in rural and regional parts of Australia,” Mr Butler said.

“It is just one way the government is building the health workforce across the country to ensure every Australian has ready access to affordable, quality health care.”

The payments became available on January 1, 2024, and will be accessible until March 31 in 2026. The incentive will recognise services delivered during 2023, 2024 and 2025.