News

---

RACGP launches ‘big picture’ vision for general practice workforce

---

The RACGP has outlined its plan to create a ‘sustainable and thriving general practice workforce’ with the launch of its milestone National workforce strategy 2025–30.
 
Released on Friday, the strategy focuses on addressing the significant shortfall of GPs, current pay disparities, and how to boost the job’s attractiveness.
 
‘The RACGP National workforce strategy 2025–30 is designed to cut through uncertainty, set clear priorities, and establish a structured operational plan that defines timelines, resource allocation and measurable outcomes,’ it says.
 
‘This strategy aims to drive meaningful change by shaping solutions, informing government policy and action, and ensuring a sustainable and thriving general practice workforce.’
 
According to the five-year plan, the college is taking a ‘holistic approach’ to workforce, focusing on:

• growing and sustaining a strong general practice workforce across metro, regional, rural and remote Australia
• future-proofing the profession
• cultural safety, health, and workforce support
• embedding general practice at the heart of the healthcare system.

RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told newsGP it is great to see that the college understands the growing demand for GPs, and, more importantly, how it can implement strategies to train the future workforce.
 
‘We’ve known for a long time there’s a GP shortage. The important thing is that the strategy outlines clear solutions for how we get the GPs that Australia needs all around the country,’ he said.
 
‘The strategy outlines multiple ways we can encourage GP training, give junior doctors positive experiences in general practice, as well as remove some barriers stopping medical students choosing our amazing profession.’
 
The strategy’s release comes amid a current shortfall of 3010 GP full-time employees in Australia, with this to increase to 8420 GPs in 2030, 12,910 GPs in 2035 and 17,760 GPs in 2040 under an ‘unmet demand scenario’.
 
‘If Australia seeks to achieve a sustainable home-grown general practice workforce over the medium to long term, the RACGP annual GP training numbers need to increase from 1350 to 1850 at a minimum over the next five years,’ the strategy says.
 
‘GP headcount, however, has estimated positive growth across all Modified Monash Model classifications.’
 
The strategy says there are multiple factors that impact the effectiveness of GP distribution, such as: 
 

• perceived viability of training location including geographical isolation, financial viability and personal safety
• distance required to travel for access to primary care services
• access to transport and infrastructure
• access to services.

The strategy’s launch comes after, earlier this year, the Federal Government announced an initiative which will train 2000 new GPs every year by 2028 and incentivise more junior doctors to become GPs.
 
However, the strategy also addressed the current challenges of attracting new graduates to specialise in general practice, including the ‘clear pay disparity’ and lower financial incentives.
 
‘We know that we don’t go into general practice for the money, but the disparity is a real barrier,’ Dr Wright said.
 
‘We’ve been sharing the document with policymakers to highlight where we’re currently at in terms of workforce, but more importantly how we get back on track in getting Australia the GPs we need.
 
‘The strategy is a really well thought out piece of work which tries to understand what the growing demand for GP care is likely to be.’
 
It also points to the ‘continuing reliance of selection on academic merit as the primary criteria’ for medical students, costs, exposure to a general practice curriculum, and hospital training being predominantly in metro areas.
 
‘To ensure junior doctors see general practice as a stimulating, attractive and secure career path, the renumeration and status assigned to general practice must meet those of hospital specialties,’ it says.
 
‘The intent to study general practice has shown a steady decline over recent years, dropping significantly from 13% to 10.5% in 2023.
 
‘Restoring the status of general practice is a priority for the RACGP, but it is also the responsibility of all key stakeholders including universities, training hospitals, state and Commonwealth health departments and all medical colleges.’
 
The strategy also points to the growing international medical graduate (IMG) workforce, with IMGs now making up 54.5% of Australia’s general practice workforce.
 
‘The role of IMGs in the medical workforce over the next 20 years is a priority area of ongoing analysis,’ the strategy said.
 
The RACGP has made a long list of recommendations it says are needed to future-proof the profession.
 
It says the Federal Government needs to work with the college to ‘moderate potential earning inequity to improve the ability of GPs across Australia to generate competitive incomes’.
 
The strategy urges the Government to continue working with the RACGP to identify structural reforms and strategies to address this.
 
It calls for structural adjustments to ensure the sustainability of a domestic-trained workforce, changes to incentivise and attract general practice registrars and the setting of national workforce expectations in partnership with the Department of Education, universities and the RACGP.
 
‘The strategy is the big picture/long-term vision for the general practice workforce,’ the strategy said.
 
‘The key goal of this strategy is to move the RACGP from a reactive to a proactive stance on general practice workforce issues where the college is deploying its influence to formulate and shape the solutions.’
 
The strategy will be updated annually to reflect the ‘current rapid rate of reform’ from both the Federal Government and the college.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

---

GP shortage GP workforce national workforce strategy regional workforce

---