RACGP embarks on regional road trip

The RACGP has embarked on a tour of regional New South Wales to hear directly from patients and GPs about exactly what they need to improve healthcare locally.
 
The tour will see RACGP NSW/ACT Chair Dr Rebekah Hoffman visiting practices in Tamworth and Armidale to gain on-the-ground insight into what changes are needed.
 
It comes after the region secured just two GP registrars in the last Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) intake, with the RACGP saying it hopes to secure higher numbers moving forward.
 
More positively however, there are currently 21 Fellowship Support Program trainees in the area.
 
Dr Hoffman told newsGP it is ‘really important’ for the college to meet its regional and rural members in person to discover what their major concerns are.
 
And she said there is one issue in particular causing the most worry among rural residents.
 
‘It’s what we hear when we go anywhere – workforce, workforce, workforce,’ Dr Hoffman said.
 
‘I was talking to one of our team this morning who says their patient is travelling up to two hours to find their GP in city areas because their local doctor has retired and hasn’t been replaced.
 
‘Yes, telehealth goes some way to make that easier, but there’s nothing better than sitting across the table with your patient and talking about their issues, their concerns, and working on improving their health.’
 
Last year, the RACGP placed 177 registrars in priority areas of workforce need under its general practice placement incentives, including some regions which had gone without a registrar since 2016.
 
In 2025, the RACGP has recognised Armidale as an area of workforce need, meaning registrars will receive a financial incentive to train in the region.
 
In addition, the college is increasing the financial incentive for registrars to train in Moree, Wee Waa, and Glen Innes to the maximum of $45,000.
 

Dr Hugh Pearson, Dr Rebekah Hoffman and Dr Rod Martin outside Health on Rusden in Armidale.

Despite being only halfway through her regional tour, Dr Hoffman said she has seen that ‘regional GPs have a completely different adventure than city GPs’.
 
‘In these regions they’ve got opportunities to do GP obstetrics, GP anesthetics, to do rural generalism, and you’ll see different medicine than what you see in our cities,’ she said.
 
‘Just the diversity of what you see day by day – the whole reason we became GPs to begin with is because you don’t want to do the same thing every single day and that’s just enhanced and so much more significant in these areas.’
 
But Dr Hoffman said there is still much work to do to fix the ‘broken pipeline’ that is currently preventing medicals students from continuing to train regionally.
 
A recent snapshot of healthcare in rural Australia found urgent action is needed to bridge the health divide impacting rural communities, with men in ‘very remote’ areas dying up to 13.6 years earlier, and women up to 12.7 years earlier, than those in metropolitan areas.
 
It also revealed that patients living in outer regional, remote or very remote areas experience longer waiting times to see a GP than those in major cities.
 
In a bid to combat this, last month the Federal Government committed to salary incentives for junior doctors to specialise in general practice, and upping leave entitlements for registrars.
 
But the RACGP has long been calling for state and local governments to offer greater incentives, such as housing, childcare, and spousal employment, to boost the attractiveness of working as a GP in a rural or remote area.
 
It is also urging governments to facilitate more regional and rural placements for medical school students.
 
The college said this could be done through financial incentive payments to practices taking on registrars, saying this would be ‘particularly beneficial’ for GP Supervisors.
 
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AGPT Australian General Practice Training incentives regional healthcare