With a portable leave and entitlements scheme MIA, more GP and rural generalist registrars are turning to single employer models.
New South Wales is adding another 29 rural generalist trainees to its single employer model pathway this week, with Queensland set to add 60 to its pathway this month.
The model, which is rising in popularity across Australia, allows registrars to split their training across hospital and community settings while remaining an employee of the state health system, meaning their leave continues to accrue between placements.
It also allows the registrars to remain on the same salary as their hospital-based peers throughout training.
“The beauty of this model is it allows the seamless transition from the primary setting into a hospital under the one contract,” NSW rural generalist registrar Dr Marty Ryan said.
“The breadth of experience you get as a rural generalist gives you so much job satisfaction and variety.
“One moment you’re at a hospital treating someone with pneumonia and the next hour you’re back down at the general practice clinic.
“It’s constant mental stimulation. That’s why I love the job.”
It’s not just registrars who are excited about single employer models.
ACRRM has long supported the model, which is particularly beneficial for rural generalists training in advanced skills.
“By offering more certainty and stability, [these trials] increase the likelihood that registrars will build long-term careers in rural and regional areas,” president Dr Rod Martin said.
The next question, though, is what will happen to doctors who train on a single employer pathway once they become fellows. Queensland is the only state with an existing single employer model of sorts for fellowed generalists.
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Dr Martin told The Medical Republic that an upcoming workshop in Emerald would focus on precisely this issue.
“At the moment, different jurisdictions are doing what seems to suit them,” he said.
“From a federal policy framework [standpoint, we should have] some firmed up, clear concepts about how a single employer model looks, irrespective of what state you’re in, so that there’s a set of overarching principles for registrars, but also perhaps for post-fellowship doctors.
“[There are some fellowed doctors] for whom a single employer model system may well make very good sense.
“It … does make very, very good sense to have continued access to something that they’ve been familiar with.”
Besides Queensland and NSW, there are single employer model trials running in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria.
