South West healthcare industry seeing an increase in rural GP hiring, but decrease in employee retention

Despite an increase in hiring of rural general practitioners, the South West healthcare industry is still reporting difficulty in retaining the much-needed professionals. Healthcare employers say they have now turned their attention to international medical graduates along with locally qualified professionals. Brecken Health owner and founder Dr Brenda Murrison said they now recruit international graduates who are immediately comparable to Australian qualified GPs as the regions fall under the Distribution Priority Area classification under immigration policies. “We have had that setting for quite some time now, but it can take anything from six months to two years — six months will be miraculous,” she said. “We’ve been recruiting well in recent years and have recruited a lot of doctors for the entire South West area, including Augusta, Margaret River, Busselton, Bunbury and Australind.” DPA is a classification that identifies locations with a shortage of GP services. But Dr Murrison said the struggle to retain the GPs was an “ongoing fight”. “Unfortunately, what often happens is, once they get the Australian qualification, they can then get into the district priority area and move closer to the city,” she said. “Some people are often given a scholarship as part of their degree, which deems they have to return to a rural area for service. “By the time they finish that service, they often have other things to prioritise like spouses or family — they have to take all that factors in when making a decision and often they move closer to the city because of that.” In order to retain skilled rural GPs in regional areas the State Government has initiated major financial incentives — a main feature being the triple bulk billing incentive. The further away from a city a GP is working, the higher the incentive is to be there. “That financial incentive will attract some doctors to rural areas, because they have the ability to earn more if they are bulk billing,” Dr Murrison said. “However, the flip side of that is the private billing rate in the city is much higher.” Other programs where medical students are helped while working in rural areas as well as internship programs in regional hospitals have also proven to help. “They make a big difference, because the doctor to be is exposed to regional and rural life at an early stage in their training,” Dr Murrison said. There are 22 medical students who arrived in the South West as part of Rural Clinical School of WA internship program. Starting in 2002, the RCSWA aims to improve the health workforce in rural and remote areas by helping sustain locally trained doctors. RCSWA head Andrew Kirke said it was a beneficial experience for students as it provided an opportunity to gain fantastic clinical experience where they can learn the skills necessary for when they graduate. “They work very closely with doctors and nurses and other health professionals here in Bunbury,” he said. “The thing that they talk to us about is the one on one experience and the chance to really get their hands involved and learn how to do the job rather than just watching.” With students completing their placement over 12 months, Mr Kirke said the program allowed the students to become part of the community.