Regional Victorian towns are crying out for GPs

Regional Victoria has dozens of GP vacancies, with doctors skipping meals and breaks to see patients. See where GPs are needed most.

Shepparton GPs say more doctors are urgently needed to make sure patients in the town get seen. Picture: David Crosling

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia is calling for key commitments in the upcoming federal budget to help address a “chronic” shortage of regional GPs.

Job vacancies listed by the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria show dozens of GPs and GP locums are needed to staff practices in regional and rural communities across Victoria.

The electorate of Indi, in Victoria’s north east, was the most in need, with 17 ads for GPs listed in February, while 16 GPs were needed in Mallee, 14 in Gippsland and 10 in Nicholls, which covers Shepparton.

Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr Megan Berlot, who works at a rural practice in Kerang, said successive governments had struggled to fix GP shortages in regional and rural Victoria.

She said jobs could take 12-18 months to fill, and structural changes and incentives were needed to make sure young doctors moved to the bush and stayed there.

“RDAA have been pushing for junior doctors to have parental leave, long service leave and annual leave, because that’s really where we’re seeing the junior workforce not wanting to come to GP at all – they lose all those benefits when they leave the hospital sector,” Dr Berlot said.

In Shepparton, a report provided to a Senate inquiry into GP shortages in January found GPs were struggling with burnout and mental health issues from working in understaffed practices for long hours.

Princess Park Clinic GP Dr Rachel Adams said she was skipping meals and breaks to see patients and it was taking a toll on her mental health.

“There’s a lot of demand and I feel a lot of pressure to fit people in. I just fit them in. I don’t have my lunch; I don’t have my day off. I put them in late at night. That’s what has to happen,” she said.

“It’s miserable, to be quite honest with you. We see a patient, we open the door, we call the

next patient in, we see a patient, we open the door, call the next patient in. We don’t walk out

of our rooms. We’re here for 12 hours a day,” Dr Adams said.

Three GP clinics in the town had a staff turnover of between 25 and 50 per cent in the past year, the report found.

Shepparton Medical Clinic GP Dr Elizabeth Kennedy said the cycle of overwork was “disheartening”.

“You work, work, work and you haven’t got anybody to pass on the work to. You’re always thinking there’s more and more to do here,” she said.

Minister for Regional Health Dr David Gillespie said in a statement he was in ongoing discussions with the Rural Doctors Association regarding changes to the government’s Workforce Incentive Program.

The program was funded to provide more than $500 million over 2021/22 to encourage more doctors to practice in regional, rural and remote areas. Eligible doctors are able to receive up to $60,000 each year through the program, Dr Gillespie said.

“For doctors participating in the Workforce Incentive Program, the more rural a doctor is practicing, the higher the incentive payment. The WIP is being evaluated with a final report from my department due to me later this year,” he said.