{"id":4847,"date":"2021-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/why-it-can-take-years-to-recruit-a-gp-for-the-bush\/"},"modified":"2023-01-19T09:32:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T23:32:54","slug":"why-it-can-take-years-to-recruit-a-gp-for-the-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/why-it-can-take-years-to-recruit-a-gp-for-the-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it can take years to recruit a GP for the bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red tape amid a rural health crisis: Why it can take years to recruit a GP for the bush.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practice owners and recruiters bemoan sluggish GP recruitment<\/a> as the rural workforce shortage worsens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practice owners and recruiters say the process to recruit GPs is too long.<\/p>\n

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How long does it take to recruit an international medical graduate (IMG) to work as a GP in rural or regional Australia?<\/p>\n

Up to two years \u2013 and the long lag time means the rural health crisis is likely to worsen, according to rural practice owners.<\/p>\n

The news comes as a NSW parliamentary inquiry\u00a0has heard<\/a>\u00a0doctors in the country are effectively running a \u2018crisis medical service\u2019, in part due to workforce shortages.<\/p>\n

NSW locum GP Dr Phillip Jolly\u00a0wrote in a submission to the inquiry<\/a>\u00a0that there is a \u2018crisis in recruitment of medical personal in these towns \u2026 rural people need access to medical practitioners in their towns\u2019.<\/p>\n

Medical recruiters have told\u00a0newsGP<\/em>\u00a0the problem is as bad as they have ever seen it, with thousands of vacancies unlikely to be filled.<\/p>\n

IMGs make up half of Australia\u2019s rural workforce, but bringing in overseas-trained doctors is a\u00a0time-consuming process<\/a>\u00a0without a guaranteed outcome.<\/p>\n

RACGP Rural Chair Dr Michael Clements told\u00a0newsGP<\/em>\u00a0that rural practice owners have been finding it harder since COVID struck.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are seeing very significant \u2013 clinically significant \u2013 shortages in rural areas right now,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Most rural practices have been experiencing long timeframes from the identification of a vacancy through to getting boots on the ground. There are multiple delays through that process and COVID has stretched that even further, with both uncertainty and procedural delays.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s confronting for us, because rural sites have relied on IMGs for many years.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to Dr Clements, solving the problem will require a commitment to reforming the process.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need the different agencies involved in the movement of these doctors [to] commit to streamlining the process \u2013 from the Federal Government and visas, to AHPRA and recognition, as well as the GP colleges committing,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Practices are agile and quick and can adjust, but they rely on these big bureaucracies for the processes.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Clements said the staffing crisis has been exacerbated by intermittent internal border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have played havoc with the traditionally mobile locum workforce.<\/p>\n

A 2012 Federal Government inquiry into the challenges for IMGs titled\u00a0\u2018Lost in the Labyrinth\u2019<\/a>\u00a0handed down 45 recommendations to \u2018reduce red tape, duplication and administrative hurdles faced by IMGs whilst ensuring that the Australian standard continues to be rigorously applied\u2019.<\/p>\n

While the Federal Government last year moved to\u00a0fast-track visas for IMGs<\/a>\u00a0in a bid to address the immediate shortfall of locums who often work across state borders, medical recruiters and practice owners say the path remains onerous.<\/p>\n

Despite encouraging\u00a0signs of interest<\/a>\u00a0from GPs in training in the new Rural Generalist Pathway designed to boost GP numbers in the bush, the pathway will take time to work.<\/p>\n

In the interim, practice owners are struggling to recruit, with towns like Katherine seeing vital practices close their doors \u2013 though a new clinic has\u00a0since opened<\/a>, and another is\u00a0due to open soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a submission to the ongoing NSW inquiry into regional health outcomes and access seen by\u00a0newsGP<\/em>, Taree, NSW, GP and practice owner Dr Simon Holliday laid out his long and difficult effort to recruit.<\/p>\n

\u2018Over my years as a rural GP, my major cause of headache has been medical recruitment and retention. Yet, many rural GPs are far worse off than me,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is an urgent need for some communication between the different state and federal regulating bodies involved in this process.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u201cKafkaesque\u201d is how processes unfold, rather than how the system works.\u2019<\/p>\n

RACGP Rural Chair Dr Michael Clements said the shortages have become \u2018clinically significant\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Holliday gave the example of recruiting a South African GP, a process that took 22 months.<\/p>\n

\u2018At least three times, when requirements were arbitrarily changed, we relied on our federal member to negotiate the deadlines and managed to salvage the process by a couple of days or weeks,\u2019 Dr Holliday wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2018An example of the inflexibility was how APHRA required [him] to fly to Australia to attend the APHRA office in person to present his identification documents.<\/p>\n

\u2018They refused to allow the Australian Embassy in South Africa to witness them. He flew to Perth and then had to either stay in Australia for a minimum of six weeks without working or return home, which he did.\u2019<\/p>\n

Another recruitment effort was delayed for several months while the overseas-trained GP worked to have his immigration sponsorship transferred.<\/p>\n

\u2018This took five months and during this time he was unable to work anywhere,\u2019 Dr Holliday wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were very stretched at the time trying to construct and establish a GP respiratory clinic and it seemed bizarre that, due to bureaucratic delays, our community could not access his services and he could not earn a living.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Holliday told\u00a0newsGP<\/em>\u00a0his story is \u2018not remarkable\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s the same story writ large across rural Australia. Everyone says they\u2019re going to do something, b but it\u2019s too big for any one particular person to be responsible for or care about,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018If we are overstretched, don\u2019t be surprised if people in the bush die younger, and if more care is in the emergency department with late diagnoses or emergency management of chronic illness.\u2019<\/p>\n

A medical recruiter told\u00a0newsGP<\/em>\u00a0this is the most difficult it has ever been to bring overseas-trained doctors into the country. Her agency has almost 1000 vacancies for GPs with \u2018absolutely no hope of filling them\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018We have so many clients who are desperate and we can\u2019t fulfil the need,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are going to see a significant decline in numbers of doctors available for rural and outer-metro areas in the very near future as a result.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s no quicker pathway for people to go rurally rather than metro. There\u2019s no shortcut. It\u2019s a really, really long process. And this has nothing to do with coronavirus \u2013 COVID is delaying our ability to recognise what\u2019s really going on.<\/p>\n

\u2018People don\u2019t want to listen to us [recruiters] because of our commercial incentive. Yes, we have that incentive, but we also have a knowledge of the sector that\u2019s quite unique.<\/p>\n

\u2018Often it\u2019s us as recruiters who are the only ones who have oversight of the whole pathway. We\u2019re the ones who have to guide doctors through each step. If they don\u2019t do it the right way, they can get stuck right at the end.\u2019<\/p>\n

The situation has become so bad that she will now only take on clients where there is a chance of successfully recruiting a GP.<\/p>\n

A 2019 Deloitte Access Economics\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by Cornerstone Health estimated the GP shortfall to be almost 9300 by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u2018The undersupply of GPs is [partly] driven by a lack of Australian-trained graduates and the recent policy change that has significantly restricted access to overseas-trained GPs,\u2019 the report states.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment. However, a spokesperson for Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt recently told\u00a0The Australian<\/em><\/a>\u00a0the Government had allocated $550 million in the 2018\u201319 budget to attract doctors to the bush.<\/p>\n

\u2018After the first two years, more than 800 additional GPs and 700 additional nurses are working in regional and remote areas,\u2019 the spokesperson told the paper.<\/p>\n

\u2018Since 2013, the number of GPs in Australia has been growing at 2.5 times the rate of the population.\u2019<\/p>\n

The original article can be found here:\u00a0https:\/\/www1.racgp.org.au\/newsgp\/professional\/red-tape-amid-a-rural-health-crisis-why-it-can-tak<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Search latest jobs here<\/a> or get in contact<\/a> with us today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red tape amid a rural health crisis: Why it can take years to recruit a GP for the bush. Practice owners and recruiters bemoan sluggish GP recruitment as the rural workforce shortage worsens. Practice owners and recruiters say the process to recruit GPs is too long. How long does it take to recruit an international…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-information","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7713,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions\/7713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpsmedical.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}