Rural Generalists in Queensland gather for milestone event

Rural Generalists (RG) and leaders have gathered in Queensland this week on the 20^th anniversary of an agreement which started the RG movement in Australia, to reflect on progress made and opportunities ahead.
 
The Queensland Rural Generalist 20-Year Forum was held in the town of Roma, the ‘spiritual home of rural generalism’ and the birthplace of the milestone Roma Agreement, which set the tone for the growth of RG medicine in Australia.
 
The two-day event was co-hosted by producer and broadcaster Dr Norman Swan, who was present at both the 2005 Roma Agreement meeting and its 10-year review in 2015.
 
RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements said this week’s forum reflected on how far rural generalism had come since the Roma Agreement, while looking forward at ways to ensure the profession remained strong.
 
‘It’s the 20-year anniversary of the Roma Agreement, which was held here in Roma by a small number of representatives and doctors who were trying to reverse the collapse of many of the rural hospital and community GP services in Queensland,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘From the meeting 20 years ago, they came up with an action plan, a little bit edgy and confrontational, to try and urge the government to invest new money and develop these pathways.
 
‘Now here we are at 20 years, but with a much bigger pathway, a much bigger audience, a lot more stakeholders nationally reviewing where we’ve got to, and what the next phase of advocacy needs to look like.
 
‘It’s been very good catching up with all of the national RG representatives and stakeholders, government members, the Director General for Queensland Health, and people from all over the country, recapping where we’ve got to and starting to set the agenda for where we need to continue to grow and move.’
 
Associate Professor Clements said Queensland was the first state to embrace the concept of rural generalism, and it was fitting to come together here after the recent announcement that Rural Generalist medicine is now recognised as a medical speciality.
 
‘It really was the start of what we’ve seen now culminate in the national recognition of rural generalism,’ he said.
 
Associate Professor Clements also acknowledged the college’s growth in this space.
 
‘The RACGP is certainly levelling up in terms of the number of people doing their RG training through the college … and we have a really good RG offering for our members,’ he said.
 
‘We are very proud of what we’ve been able to do in this space … and the college is here at the forum in force, with the CEO, Queensland Chair, myself as Rural Chair, and rural managers – we have a big crew of people showing our support for this concept.’
 
As well as reflecting on RG progress, the forum explored areas to address moving forward, including the need to support RG wellbeing.
 
‘It came through very strongly, particularly from our trainee members, that there was room to focus on RG wellness and welfare, and what we are doing to support mental health and wellbeing,’ Associate Professor Clements said.
 
‘Things like fatigue management and mental health support for our rural doctors that certainly do find themselves at risk of burnout because of the kind of work they’re doing.’
 
He said he was also pleased to see international medical graduates (IMGs) raised by the forum as being an area for future focus.
 
‘Most people entering RG training across both the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and RACGP have had Australian degrees as their first medical degree, and yet we still know that most of our rural workforce comes from IMGs,’ Associate Professor said.
 
‘One of the themes that came out was looking at what we can do to better support IMGs who enter the country, to look at supporting their GP training, but also supporting them if they want to enter the RG space and training program as well.
 
‘And this is quite appropriate, remembering that many of our IMGs come with many years of hospital experience from their home countries that are quite suitable to be applied in our rural towns, as long as it’s done under an appropriate training and supervision framework.’
 
Associate Professor Clements said the forum also highlighted a need to look at strategies to boost the number of supervisors.
 
‘We are facing a supervision squeeze – we know about our ageing GP workforce, and that’s also true of RGs as well,’ he said.
 
‘Many of our long-standing supervisors in the RG space will be retiring soon, and so getting enough support and funding for supervisors is a key challenge.
 
‘What was discussed is that in many rural towns, the limiting factor isn’t the number of doctors that want to come and train, it’s just that we don’t have enough supervisors.’
 
The forum concluded on Friday with the presentation of a draft Roma Rural Generalist Charter.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

international medical graduates RG rural and remote rural general practice rural generalism Rural Generalist