Meet Australia’s new Rural Health Commissioner

For more than three decades, Professor Jenny May has worked as a regional GP, an educator, and a director, and as of this month, she is Australia’s new Rural Health Commissioner.
 
In those 35 years, Professor May has never worked in a metropolitan area, instead forging her path away from the world’s major cities.
 
Her career has taken her to Tamworth, Exmouth, Tom Price, even the remote Canadian community of Bella Coola – a 12-hour drive from Vancouver with a population of little over 2000 people.
 
And next week, Professor May will address the RACGP Rural Member Forum, a free online event which also includes the annual member meeting and networking opportunities for rural GPs.  

The event will be held on 26 September from 7.30–9.30 pm (AEST) and can be accessed on the RACGP website.
 
Professor May said she knows all too well the importance of exposure to rural practice from a GPs’ early career, after her own passion for regional communities was forged in medical school.
 
‘I got an exposure to rural life as a student and it turned out to be a very important and formative exposure,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘What I encountered in the rural area I was sent to was incredibly motivated clinicians who had an absolute passion for what they were doing, but also were really connected into their communities.
 
‘I found that very attractive, both the style of practice, because they were good at lots of things and able to do a lot, but also that sense of connection in the community.’
 
Since then, she has worked on the ground as a rural GP, as well as spending 20 years in health education teaching the medical, nursing and allied health students of the future.
 
Before her appointment as Rural Health Commissioner, Professor May was Director of the University of Newcastle’s Department of Rural Health in Tamworth, specialising in the health workforce.
 
‘Now in this national role, I can think about taking some of those learnings and the current picture and think how I can best support rural and remote communities to be their best selves,’ she said.
 
‘I haven’t gone metro any stage, so my career has been forged living and working in rural and regional settings.
 
‘It is a driving force for me that we support and enhance the opportunities we have in non-metropolitan areas and allow our GPs to be their full selves.’
 
The Rural Health Forum comes at a time when around seven million Australians are currently living in rural or remote areas, totalling 28% of the Australian population.
 
But attracting doctors to work in rural and regional Australia remains a challenge, with a number of new initiatives and incentives rolling out to lure GPs away from the cities.
 
Professor May said as she moves forward in her new role, she is keen to hear from on-the-ground GPs about what their experiences are, and what the future of rural general practice looks like.
 
‘One of my biggest jobs is to be a good listener, and that’s why I’m attending the forum, as well as speaking, to listen intently,’ she said.
 
‘I am also really keen that we think about how we’re training and retaining, and I believe that we can do more in terms of place-based training because we’ve got a huge opportunity in training the health workforce for the future and we do it in settings like general practice.
 
‘What I hope for the future is that we can support people to have fulfilling careers in general practice and in other settings, in our rural and regional communities.’
 
Visit the RACGP website to take part in the Rural Health Forum.
 
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