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Record influx of new doctors mitigating GP shortage


Michelle Wisbey


1/11/2024 3:14:00 PM

In promising signs of regrowth for the healthcare landscape, more new doctors than ever before were registered to practise in Australia last year.

Two smiling GPs walking down street.
This year, more than 1600 doctors accepted a place on a training program to become a GP or rural GP.

New doctors are pouring into Australia’s healthcare system at record-breaking rates, with 9490 registered to practise in 2023–24 alone.
 
And it is GPs who look set to benefit most from this doctor injection, with more than 1750 offers expected to be made to junior doctors to begin general practice training next year.
 
This is expected to lead to an intake up to 10% larger than 2024.
 
That is according to new Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) statistics, released on Friday, which show promising signs of a reversal on Australia’s doctor shortage.
 
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins welcomed the boost in GP numbers, saying that now the Government must place general practice as the centre of the healthcare system.
 
‘Who doesn’t want more GPs? The turnaround and changing narrative about the importance and value of general practice is what’s changed,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Being able to witness GPs taking ownership of their profession and being the change has been incredibly satisfying, and each and every GP has the opportunity to be an advocate for their profession and their patients, and I’m now seeing GPs finding their voice.
 
‘Since the RACGP took back general practice training, we’ve worked really hard to change that narrative and place general practice as a solution to the healthcare crisis.
 
‘That, and last year’s Federal Budget, which was the biggest investment in general practice for a long time, have been the key drivers of these green shoots.’
 
This year, more than 1600 doctors accepted a place on a government-funded training program to become a GP or rural GP, up 13% from the year before.
 
Additionally, both the RACGP and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) are expecting to fill all the placements they have available this year.
 
Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler said this renewed interest for both internationally and locally trained medical professionals shows a ‘big vote of confidence from doctors’.
 
‘We know the difficulty that too many Australians face getting in to see a doctor and we are doing everything we can to attract, train and retain more doctors,’ he said.
 
‘More doctors are joining the health system, more doctors are training to become GPs, and more medical graduates are aspiring to become GPs since the Albanese Government was elected.’
 
According to the DoHAC, one new doctor joined the healthcare every hour last year as more doctors joined in the last two years than at any time in the past decade.
 
Of these, 5431 were overseas-trained doctors newly registered to practise in Australia, up 80% than in 2018–19.
 
This surge in international medical graduates (IMGs) comes as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) kicked off its new expedited pathway program for GPs on 21 October.
 
This controversial program allows streamlined registration to with a recent Irish College of General Practitioners or Royal College of General Practitioners membership, or a Fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.
 
The change has long drawn the ire of the RACGP, which has raised concerns about its bypassing of the medical colleges.
 
However, Dr Higgins said moving forward, governments and decisionmakers must ensure these additional doctors are enabled to work in areas of most demand.
 
‘Every Australian deserves access to good quality general practice, irrespective of their postcode,’ she said.
 
‘Supply is one part of the issue, but so is demand, and now we really need to be looking at how we are best using general practice.’
 
‘What needs to change now is dollars, because general practice funding has dropped and to have a strong primary care sector, to keep people out of hospital, we need funding.’
 
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general practice GP shortage IMGs international medical graduates junior doctors Mark Butler


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newsGP weekly poll Do you think the Federal Government’s expansion of Distribution Priority Areas will make it harder to recruit GPs to regional and remote Australia?

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Dr Farid Zaer   3/11/2024 10:10:37 AM

"Mediocre expectations" is the Hallmark of the AMA, there are no doctors in hospitals, educational departments, ICUs and more, the registrars who trained with me 32 years ago, continue to run the hospital wards alone at night, and no entourage of residents and trainees, they are now run-down, greying everywhere and still doing the same "crappy work" that a junior resident should do. My colleagues should be teaching, writing, visiting, attending and making others prepare grand rounds and other events for conferences. The "new doctors" go to the country because the old "guard dogs" do not want to advance medicine and build hierarchical medical and health education systems. "Mediocre RACGP, Mediocre AMA!


Dr Suzette Julie Finch   5/11/2024 3:10:34 PM

Farid, respectfully, I have read & re-read your comment a few times. I don't understand your link between doctors who presumably haven't completed a training programme, & so need to work as hospital RMOs and the AMA or RACGP. Are you suggesting the AMA or RACGP are to blame for them not completing a training programme in over 32 years? Is this, in your opinion, due to racism from the AMA? We ALL had to complete RACGP or ACRRM training to be GPs in Australia and pass the same exams until recently. Many of us partially completed other training programmes and had to also start our GP training programme from the beginning. The idea was that there would be a universal standard that we ALL met, which is the opposite of bias. If I choose to immigrate, I have to demonstrate I meet that health system's standard, which I did as a general graduate with the ECFMG exams for the USA to demonstrate my medical degree was comparable to the US degrees. To immigrate is actually a choice.


Dr Abdul Ahad Khan   12/11/2024 1:56:35 AM

Suzette, I disagree with your Opinion/
I & many other MBBS' arrived in Australia when there was a Need, in the early 1970s.
We all had a few years of Work as Senior Interns at various Hospitals - some went on to Specialise in various Fields & a lot of us entered General Practice.

Having rotated through ED / ICU / Medical / Surgical / Orthopoedic / Paediatric Wards, we commenced General Practice.
All of us who entered General Practice became very Good GPs.
The RACG P came into existence around 1977 & gradually commenced to put in Obstacles & Obstacles to become a GP - The College does not represent us GPs at the Coalface - lying in bed with the Govt. of the day, it has done everything to safeguard its own Existence.
The Temple of Learning is inside Hospitals & not outside - Fresh MBBSs doing 3 months of Rotation in various Departments under Supervision of Registrars & Specialists pose no Threat to the Populace. These fresh MBBSs will become safe GPs , Suzette.
DR. AHAD KHAN