Forum explores GPs’ futures, seeks shortage solutions

Removing roadblocks to medical students pursuing general practice, particularly in rural and regional areas, was a key focus of the inaugural SA Future GP Forum, held last weekend in McLaren Vale.
 
The forum, hosted by General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) in collaboration with Federal MP Rebekha Sharkie, concluded with a raft of potential initiatives hoped to help avert a forecast shortage of 10,000 GPs across Australia by 2031.
 
Throughout the event, an expert panel and around 60 participants discussed what barriers are currently stopping future doctors wanting to train and stay in general practice as well as identifying key solutions to the GP shortage.
 
General Practice Students Network (GPSN) members from 21 universities across Australia also attended to offer their views on the future of general practice.
 
Chair of the RACGP Board and RACGP South Australia, Dr Siân Goodson, attended the event and said it was great to hear directly from the medical students and young doctors, and to learn of the ‘varying opportunities different university courses offer to expose students to general practice’.
 
‘The quantity and quality of general practice education within medical school programs seems to vary significantly, which affects future student career choices,’ she told newsGP.
 
She said she also had the opportunity to speak with pre-vocational doctors and understand some of the barriers to entering general practice training, ‘especially the drop in income when moving from hospital to community medicine’.

Attendees listen to Future GP panellists (L–R) SA Health Minister Chris Picton, GPRA President Dr Chris Dickie, Dr Rohan Nitchingham and GPSN National Chair Kei Hsieh.  

The event’s proposed solutions included the establishment of a national fund to provide financial stability for GP registrars entering GP training in the first years and improved peer support and mentoring.
 
GPRA President Dr Chris Dickie said the forum was ‘a really exciting event’ that gave future GPs the opportunity to have their voices heard alongside those who had already helped to shape the system.
 
‘It reinforced the things that we already know and that we're already advocating for,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘The things that we think are going to make the biggest difference, particularly in an [federal] election year, is addressing the pay parity issues and the issues around access to study and parental leave.
 
‘And the aspect around the pipeline into general practice – how do we keep medical students and pre-vocational doctors engaged?’
 
Dr Goodson said that while the recently announced increase in training numbers was ‘very positive news’, more needed to be done to ensure patients in all communities had access to GP care well into the future.
 
‘We can and should build from here,’ Dr Goodson said.
 
‘We’re calling for funding to train an extra 1500 specialist GPs over the next five years. We also need to see increased government support for overseas trained doctors to become specialist GPs in Australia.’
 
Dr Dickie said the forum has ‘laid the groundwork for practical reforms’ that would improve GP recruitment and retention not just in regional South Australia, but nationally.
 
Moving forward, he said GPRA plans to work with all levels of government and industry stakeholders in a bid to see the forum’s proposed solutions implemented.
 
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GP workforce GPRA GPs in training regional rural South Australia