‘A 14-year journey’: GPs in Training Chair celebrates Fellowship

There is a certain irony that Dr Rebecca Loveridge will never personally benefit from one of the most substantial advocacy successes from her time as Chair of the RACGP GPs in Training faculty.
 
The Melbourne-based GP celebrated becoming an RACGP Fellow at a ceremony with her young son in tow last month – but things could have been quite different.
 
‘Once I found out that I had passed my exams, myself and my husband decided that we would try and start a family,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘I actually waited for training to be over, and the reason for that is because previously there was no funded maternity leave or parental leave in GP training.’
 
While medical graduates on hospital-based training programs could access parental leave, those entitlements disappeared on leaving – a substantial barrier for many considering a career in general practice, including Dr Loveridge.
 
When she became Chair of RACGP GPs in Training in late 2023, it was among the issues she hoped to address.
 
‘The faculty has been talking about this and advocating for this for some time,’ she said.  
 
‘I had attended GPs@Parliament in 2024 and I had felt really good and positive about the conversations that we’d had.
 
‘Then when the [Federal] Budget was announced and there wasn’t the funding, it was a bit deflating.’
 
Describing herself as ‘a bit more tempered’ in her expectations when she went to the same event the following year, this time the result was very different.
 
To her delight, the 2025–26 Budget included almost $44 million set aside for paid parental leave and study leave for GPs in training.
 
‘That just shows that things take time and a lot of effort, and it doesn’t happen overnight,’ Dr Loveridge said.
 
‘It was a good learning experience. And then the result was really excellent for the GPs in training cohort.
 
‘It’s really just levelled the playing field now and it’s meant that people don’t have to specifically take that sort of financial consideration into account and they can just focus on what’s right for them and their family.
 
‘I think things would have been different for our family if that had come in earlier, but nonetheless I’m very happy with how things have turned out.’
 
Now working in custodial health at the Youth Detention Centre in Melbourne, where she has recently become lead GP of the precinct, Dr Loveridge is enjoying the opportunity to develop her leadership and clinical governance skills.
 
As she points out, the GPs in Training faculty also has under its auspices new GPs such as herself for their initial five years after Fellowship.
 
Alongside GP training, this is another focus of hers and culminated in the recent establishment of a National New Fellows Committee within the faculty she now leads.
 
‘Even though they’re not encompassed in the name, they’re a really important cohort because they’re the future leaders of the profession as well,’ she said. 
 
‘Once you’ve finished training and you’re a New Fellow, the whole world opens up to you,’ she said.
 
‘You’ve got your clinical general practice career, you’ve got non-clinical options like medical education, clinical governance, advisory, there’s so many things that can be going on.
 
‘The focus for me is to make that a positive relationship, where people feel connected and engaged and see the value the college can provide to them outside of training with CPD and advocacy.’
 
Dr Loveridge has in fact also been at that stage since early 2024 when she passed her exams – but the early arrival of her first child meant she could not attend a previous ceremony as planned.
 
For her, the wait has been more than worthwhile.
 
‘It really solidified the two years of general practice training, but also the 14-year total journey from when I finished high school to get to this point,’ she said.
 
‘Having my son on the stage and my family in the audience was really nice as well.’
 
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