The RDAA wants to see another 200 new training positions on the AGPT.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia is welcoming the government’s re-announcement of an additional 100 GP training places for 2027, but says it is still concerned about filling rural workforce gaps.
As the May budget approaches, the RDAA has continued its rural training reform push and asked for an additional 200 training positions dedicated exclusively for rural generalist training.
Per the RDAA, demand for rural generalist training from early career doctors has been growing steadily – but further reforms needed to capitalise on this trend.
Shadow minister for health Senator Anne Ruston has also called out the federal government on the latest AGPT numbers, saying that Labor needs to take the regional health workforce crisis seriously.
“Additional training places are one thing, but regional Australia needs a comprehensive workforce strategy that actually ensures we can train, attract and retain doctors in regional, rural and remote areas,” Senator Ruston said.
“We have been calling for this comprehensive workforce strategy for years now, but instead of listening, Labor is just reannouncing existing initiatives and making the situation worse by dismantling existing programs to encourage doctors to train and stay in the regions such as the Bonded Medical Program and the Distribution Priority Areas.”
RDAA immediate past president Dr RT Lewandowski has backed this argument, reiterating that plans to improve the rural health workforce need more clarity and focus.
“It’s fine to plan with lip service, but you need to plan and then actually force that thing to happen, not let it evolve organically, and then in retrospect decide it was the plan,” Dr Lewandowski told The Medical Republic.
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“We’d like future funding for those 200 positions – so that would be further funding into what’s there now – and we’d like that to be dedicated for rural generalist training.
“What we need to do is we need to measure in the longer term if these monies and these training spots are producing doctors who work in rural areas.”
Further investment into rural training has also been recommended by the RDAA as a key to attract and retain aspiring doctors to remain practicing in rural healthcare.
“You train them in a rural area, and you train them with skills that meet a real need, and you train people who want to work in rural areas, in rural areas with the skills to meet the rural needs,” Dr Lewandowski told TMR.
“There are some limitations as far as income, so we have several programmes to try to supplement and offset both financially and physically,
“We still would like to see better investment in rural and remote areas, in areas, particularly things like childcare incentives.
“It’s not so much the money we want, we want the existence of childcare, because that’s certainly something that would allow you to stay in the rural area longer.
“We really want that infrastructure around those areas to allow people to invest in the long term into greater parts of their lives, to that rural community.”
