Entire town rallies to recruit new GP

One year of free haircuts, gym classes, coffees, and a ‘refreshments package’ from the local brewery – that’s what one rural town is offering as part of its bid to attract a new GP.
 
Birregurra is a town of 1000 people, sitting around 130 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, and right now, it has just one GP – Dr Jared Kilday.
 
For well over a year, he has been trying to recruit another GP to help him at the Birregurra Medical Centre.
 
Now, Dr Kilday is getting creative, knowing his community would be ‘100% behind me’.
 
‘I knew if I asked a few local businesses, “would they be prepared to chip in to try and find a new GP”, that they would come on board,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘It’s not an easy thing to do to approach other people and say, “can you help my business”, but these are people that I know and love, and I see them in the community, I play cricket with them, or I’m on committees with them.
 
‘Before I could even get the words out, they were saying, “what can we do?”.’
 
Soon, Dr Kilday had a growing list of businesses offering their services to the new GP, on top of the package already being offered by the medical centre.
 
‘The idea is that if we can get some attention around our search and put a package on the table which involves 12 months of hairdressing, Pilates and strength work, a free coffee every day because a doctor needs caffeine to keep them going, and perhaps even a refreshment,’ he said.
 
‘We’ve got a brewery and a distillery that are offering a refreshments package to the lucky candidate, we’ve got honorary memberships to the football, the netball, the cricket clubs.
 
‘That’s without even mentioning the perks of the job of living and working in a small community and just how rewarding that is.’
 
Dr Kilday isn’t the only GP coming up with creative solutions to attract doctors to clinics outside of Australia’s major cities.
 
In Kerang, staff made a music video to attract their new GP, in Goondiwindi the practice team shot its own recruitment video, and a Julia Creek advertising campaign searching for a new doctor went viral last year.
 
RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements said it is heartening to see communities rallying around their local GP.
 
‘We have seen a big increase in the number of doctors in training looking for work in Australia, and so this is a really good opportunity for communities and towns to think outside the box,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘We’ve had several different Federal Government initiatives kick in that have increased interest in locally trained graduates applying for training in general practice, we’ve seen changes in the way IMGs are managed and the FSP program encouraging more and more doctors.
 
‘There is a lot of movement in the doctor space with more and more positions being filled, even in rural areas, so the timing is perfect for small communities like this to be looking at what they can do to stand out.’
 
And for Dr Kilday, the experience has reinforced one message to him – just how rewarding it is to work in rural medicine.
 
‘One consistent thing about rural areas is the people that you treat – your patients are exceptionally nice and warm and respectful of you,’ he said.
 
‘They see you as more than just a prescription pad, they see you as a person, they want to know about you and your interests and your family.
 
‘They also have seen me at work and in the community and they know that if I keep having to carry this town’s healthcare on my shoulders alone, I will probably ultimately go the way of many other small-town GPs and have to close my doors because I’ll simply burn out.’
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

rural healthcare rural workforce