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Reports of ‘million-dollar’ GP packages labelled canary in the workforce coalmine
The Shire of Quairading is the latest local council to dig into its own pockets in a desperate attempt to source a GP – but the RACGP Rural Chair predicts it will not be the last.
Workforce maldistribution is making it difficult for some areas to attract and retain GPs.
Rural job advertisements do not typically generate nationwide news.
However, the package a small West Australian town is preparing to offer just to entice a new GP – including an annual salary reportedly approaching seven figures – did just that.
‘The council will not stand by idle when the community has such a critical need,’ Shire President Peter Smith told The West Australian.
‘If we don’t have a doctor, we won’t have a medical clinic. Then we won’t have a hospital, we won’t have a chemist and so the demise will begin.’
In addition to a base salary of $300,000 – supplemented by consulting fees – it’s been reported that the GP would also receive rent-free accommodation in a four-bedroom house in the centre of town, as well as have all costs associated with running the practice covered by the Shire.
The position is the latest in a string of similar job opportunities in other rural and remote areas as Australia struggles to deal with workforce maldistribution, but RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements told newsGP the trouble these towns are having represent more than just a regional concern.
‘What we know is that in rural and remote areas, these issues play out first,’ he said.
‘They’re the singing canaries – where we see the hardest to fill places either offer the highest packages or do without.
‘But this isn’t just a rural or remote problem, we’ve already seen those shortages creep towards the cities.’
Instead, Associate Professor Clements says the increasingly lucrative offers local councils are having to make to attract doctors are symptomatic of a wider workforce problem that will require significant investment to solve.
‘It’s not just about money, but money needs to be part of the conversation,’ he said.
‘Unless we see something significant out of this Medicare reform taskforce and some real investment, the number of towns having to dig into their own pockets is just going to increase.
‘And the money doesn’t come out of thin air. That council has decided to invest less money into its playgrounds, less money into its swimming pool, less money into all of the other community services so that it can get what it needs.
‘It should send shivers down the spine of our health planners, because this is what it’s going to take in a number of years to fill even city positions unless somebody does something dramatic.’
General practice reform is expected to be one of the top agenda items at Friday’s National Cabinet meeting, ahead of the anticipated release of the Federal Government’s Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report.
Recent media reports suggest increasing Medicare patient rebates – one of the priority reforms identified by GPs – will be overlooked in favour of greater funding for multi-disciplinary teams and a shift away from the fee for service model.
But Associate Professor Clements is among those who believe such an approach would not help towns like Quairading.
‘We need to fund other parts of the team, not just GPs, but the reality is you still need a doctor in these teams,’ he said.
‘Quairading is not screaming for a team of non-GPs to come out and help keep its community hospital open. It needs doctors.
‘At the core of the matter, which is best displayed by our hardest to fill places in these remote areas, it comes down to needing doctors, needing GPs and needing to offer them a package which is going to work.’
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