General Practice

By Dr Rod Pearce

The AMA Council of General Practice (AMACGP) has long recognised the need for more training to take place in general practice at all levels. It has promoted more clinical placements for medical students along with extra GP Training and PGPPP Program places so that the future general practice workforce is able to meet the primary health care needs of an ageing population. 

In 2005, the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee (AMWAC) advised that the shortage of GPs was estimated at between 800 and 1,300 GPs and it said that 1,100 to 1,200 entrants to the GP workforce would be required every year to address this shortage.

March 15 2010 serves as a landmark day for general practice with the Government's announcement it will deliver an additional 5,500 GP training places and 5,400 pre-vocational training places over the next 10 years. This announcement confirms the importance of GPs and general practice as the backbone of our health system.

This investment in general practice will mean that by 2014 there will be 1,200 places for medical graduates to train to become GPs. In addition, significantly more junior doctors will be able to get out of the hospital and experience what a career in general practice could offer. An expanded PGPPP Program will be a vital tool to encourage junior doctors to take up a career as a GP.

The increased number of GP and pre-vocational training places is consistent with the AMA initiatives for general practice outlined in the AMA Priority Investment Plan for Australia's Health System.

I understand that many practices don't have the infrastructure to take on extra trainees at the current time.  This is also addressed in the AMA's Priority Investment Plan, which calls for general practice infrastructure grants totalling $830 million over three years in order to provide the facilities required to teach and train the next generation of GPs as well as to provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary care through general practice. This is a priority issue for the AMA and features highly in any discussions we have with the Government and other stakeholders.

Many GPs have told me that they were concerned about the Government's primary care reform agenda and the suggestions in some quarters that GPs can be substituted by other health care professionals. However, over time we have seen subtle changes in the Government's language on primary care reform and the growing acknowledgement of the fundamental role that GPs play.

This announcement is proof positive of that change and, though there are more details to come regarding primary care reform, it shows that the AMA has been very successful in reinforcing the important role of GPs in high quality primary health care delivery.