Autumn has arrived, and in this quarter we’re strongly advocating for significant new investment in response to the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report. We’re focused on securing appropriate incentives for rural and remote practice that are proportional to community need. Importantly, we need to see flexible funding options that respond to individual community characteristics while supporting community general practice where possible.
We continue to strongly encourage doctors to apply to obtain the Rural Generalist (RG) Fellowship, and the RACGP is eagerly anticipating the outcome of our application for recognition of RG as a sub-specialty of general practice in the coming months. Digital application forms are available on the RACGP website, where you can find out more about recognition of prior leaning and experience, core emergency medicine training, and additional rural skills training options.
To kick off our 2023 face-to-face events, RACGP Rural partnered with RACGP NSW&ACT to deliver a member meet-up, CPD update and point-of-care ultrasound workshop in Tamworth over 25–26 February. Thanks to all who joined us! Make sure you check out our upcoming events for rural members.
In the lead-up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, our Doctors for Women in Rural Medicine (DWRM) committee hosted an online meet-up with guest speaker Dr Sara Renwick-Lau, who shared her story of living and working through natural disasters. Members joined from across the country, and if you missed it I encourage you to catch up on the recording. Join the DWRM Facebook group to participate in future meet-ups and flag the issues that matter to you most in rural general practice.
In support for our efforts to shift the maldistribution of GPs, I’d like to highlight the RACGP’s remote supervision program. The program helps our AGPT registrars gain meaningful rural experience. If you’d like to be involved, submit an expression of interest.
Keep an eye out for our new weekly President’s Update on a Friday afternoon, where you can read a wrap-up of RACGP advocacy work, including in the rural space. Some of our recent rural highlights include:
- developing a response to the Primary Care Rural Integrated Multidisciplinary Health Services model that reflects rural generalist practice experience and concerns around cost, duplication, workforce competition and general practice sustainability in rural and remote communities
- responding to the Department of Health’s consultation around streamlining and expanding the Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) and the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) procedural GP payment; we back RPGP expansion to include some non-procedural skills and recommend keeping administration of the RPGP and PIP separate
- starting the consultation phases for some important pieces of work: the college’s submission to the Migration, Pathway to Nation Building inquiry, and our response to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’s regional, rural and remote physician strategy.
Assoc Prof Michael Clements
Chair, RACGP Rural
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