Plan to force GPs to work in the bush could have ‘unintended consequences’

A proposal to force Australian-trained GPs to work in the bush before they are given a Medicare provider number has been met with criticism.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the party is considering measures to attract doctors to rural Australia, including a “quid pro quo” approach for investment in their training.

But health leaders have hit back at the suggestion, warning that it risks worsening Australia’s GP workforce shortage in rural and remote areas.

Mr Joyce said patients had been waiting years for the major parties to develop policies to get medical services into rural areas and that requiring them to work in these areas before they are eligible to bulk bill could help address the concerns.

“In some regional areas we don’t even have a full-time doctor in a hospital,” he told Sunrise.

“There has to be an obligation that you spend some time, like other countries, in regional areas so that all Australians get an appropriate medical service.

“All we have at the moment is locums and they cost about $3,500 a day in some areas.

“There’s got to be a form of quid pro quo back to the Australian people for the investment in those doctors.”

Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) President Dr Sarah Chalmers warned coercive approaches to increasing the rural workforce may have unintended and counterproductive consequences.

“Blunt, mandatory policies that compel doctors to train or work rurally risk driving graduates away from general practice altogether,” she said.

“If we want more doctors in rural Australia, we need policies that make rural practice professionally attractive, well-supported and sustainable.

“While rural training pathways exist for General Practice and Rural Generalist medicine, many other specialties cannot complete training outside major tertiary hospitals.

“Mandating rural training for GPs, when it cannot be similarly required across all specialties, risks pushing trainees to simply choose another speciality that does not limit them geographically.”

Rural Generalist medicine continues to rank strongly among final-year medical students as a training pathway of choice, and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine’s data shows around 80% of Fellows are still working rurally five years after qualification, RDAA said in a statement.

Dr Chalmers added that funding more regional training places and formally embedding Rural Generalist medicine in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) would help attract and retain more rural GPs.

Unconstitutional

Peter Breadon, Program Director of Health and Aged Care at the Grattan Institute said the Constitution stops the government from forcing GPs to work in certain areas.

“Not having a provider number makes it basically impossible for GPs to work as GPs,” he said.

“We definitely need more care in rural areas, but there are options that are more effective and that won't be overruled by courts. 

“There are parts of major cities, including Perth, with too little GP care. And there are some rural areas that have plenty of GPs. A lot of funding and training places are tied to how remote a community is, but that isn't the best way to focus on the goal of making sure everyone can get the care they need.”

Mr Breadon said a minimum level of care should be set for all communities, with the federal government stepping in to boost that care when needs are not met.

Some 251 new GP registrars have just begun their training in WA – the largest intake on record.

More than half (130) will spend the full three years of their training in regional, rural, or remote WA on a rural training pathway, a 68.8% increase on 2025.