General Practice Groups Congratulate Nsw Health Minister On Postgraduate Commitment, Australia

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 05 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PST

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GP Unity NSW today congratulated The Hon John Della Bosca MP, NSW Health Minister, for his commitment (1/11/08) to ensuring all NSW medical graduates have a guaranteed hospital placement for their first 2 postgraduate years, and to the necessary forward planning to achieve this outcome.

GP Unity represents the peak general practice bodies in NSW, comprising The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (NSW&ACT Faculty), the Australian Medical Association NSW, the Rural Doctors Association of NSW, General Practice NSW and the NSW Rural Doctors Network. The GP Unity group today announced its willingness to be involved in this essential planning.

"Some 80 percent of the Australian population see their GP in any one year. GPs are the first port of call for any member of the community who has health concerns, yet general practitioners are crying out for new recruits," GP Unity representatives said.

"The Australian Government's own research tells them that a minimum of 1,200 entrants to general practice are needed each year just to maintain average workforce supply on medicine's front line. Yet barely 600 are recruited each year for GP training.

"General practice is the only medical specialty graduates do not routinely experience in their immediate postgraduate hospital years. This lack of exposure when graduates are choosing their career paths inevitably impacts negatively on general practice recruitment. We need 40 percent of our Australian graduates to be choosing general practice: currently the figure is 27 percent, and this is not sustainable.

"The Commonwealth already funds a Prevocational General Practice Placement Program (PGPPP), which rotates interns and resident medical officers into general practice for one term. Mr Della Bosca's federal colleague, The Hon Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health has just announced an expansion of this program. NSW is the only state not fully involved in the PGPPP.

"GP Unity requests that Minister Della Bosca ensure NSW Health addresses its indemnity concerns and place its full support behind the PGPPP, in line with every other state and territory. If general practice is not attracting at least 40 percent of the increased medical graduate numbers forecast for coming years, the burden will simply fall back on an already overburdened hospital system.

"It is vital that the peak general practice organisations are engaged in the state government's workforce planning."

Source

Jason Berek-Lewis
National Manager - Media and Communications
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners