Latest news with #GPshortage
ABC News
a day ago
- Health
- ABC News
Fears Clermont's sole GP will leave town over new hospital shifts
When doctor Tim Lane, his partner and young son moved to Clermont in central Queensland 18 months ago, it ended six years of community uncertainty. After years of lobbying, advertising and a few false starts, the town of 3,000 finally had a permanent doctor at the hospital and a promise to open a second GP clinic in town. However, rostering changes implemented by Mackay Hospital and Health Service (MHHS) have locals worried there will be fewer available GP appointments. Dr Lane is now required to work 7am–9am and 4pm–7pm in the hospital. Sam Faint, chair of community advocacy group ClermontCONNECT, said this would mean 10–15 fewer GP appointments a day. She said initially an integrated roster system allowed Dr Lane flexibility to run the GP practice "while prioritising work inside the hospital". "It's unlikely that the surgery will be able to continue to be viable if that model doesn't revert back to what it was." Dr Lane declined to comment but, in a statement, his practice manager Deb Shore said changes meant the GP clinic would reduce opening hours. "[It will] limit the flexibility we've had to support the hospital emergency department and collaborate with the health service when needed," the statement read. In a statement, MHHS said there had been no change to the medical model that enabled doctors to work in the hospital and in general practice. It said under this employment arrangement, there were required hours of attendance at Clermont's Multi-Purpose Health Service (MPHS). The health service said it could not comment on opening hours of a privately owned general practice. A second permanent doctor has started work at the MPHS, a move MHHS said would increase medical coverage. The new doctor will work five days a fortnight at the hospital and the other five at the GP surgery. The second doctor is completing her general practitioner qualifications and will be required to work under Dr Lane's supervision for six months. A locum doctor is also employed to cover when both permanent doctors are rostered off. Recruiting doctors to work in the Isaac region is a long-standing issue, and community advocates such as Ms Faint worry what might happen if Dr Lane leaves. For a permanent population of 22,500 people and a large itinerant workforce of around 13,000, the region is serviced by six GPs in Moranbah, as well as one each in the smaller towns of Dysart and Middlemount. An outreach clinic services Nebo to the east. In January, doctor Sarah McLay closed her Clermont Country Practice, the town's only other clinic, with some patients transitioning to telehealth appointments from Emerald, more than 100 kilometres away. That same month, the Moranbah Sonic Health Plus practice closed after 10 years, with no reason given. Clermont, a three-hour drive from Mackay and four hours from Rockhampton, has lived with periods of uncertainty in health care before. The community has previously fought to attract permanent doctors and reduce its reliance on expensive locums. Steve Salleras worked as a GP in Clermont from 1998 to 2001 and said health outcomes had been consistently worse for people in rural and remote areas. In a statement, Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said primary care was not the state government's responsibility. "The Commonwealth government has vacated the field in Clermont and dozens of other rural and remote communities of Queensland, leaving it up to Queensland Health to step in a fill the gap," Mr Nichols said. In a statement, federal MP for Capricornia Michelle Landry said the appeal of rural health roles had declined over the past few years. She described the absence of a permanent GP in any small community as "dangerous". A spokesperson for the federal health department said under the Workforce Incentive Program a GP in Clermont could receive up to $60,000 annually, while a GP practice could receive up to $215,280 a year. Dr Salleras said small Queensland communities like Theodore and Cloncurry had successfully built sustainable health models to support both emergency and primary care, but it relied on making a doctor's time in a rural area as smooth as possible. "[If there are] high levels of trust, that makes it a positive place to attract people and means that there's potential even for a succession plan," he said.
ABC News
a day ago
- Health
- ABC News
GPs, clinics say red tape prevents overseas doctors filling vacancies
General practitioners and clinic owners say red tape and a lack of supervisors are preventing internationally trained doctors from filling the gaps in Australia's healthcare system. Australia is short by about 2,400 full-time equivalent GPs, with communities in Western Australia's north among those feeling the consequences. Dr Izhar Hashim was a specialist doctor in Malaysia before deciding to practice in Australia. It took more than a year for Dr Hashim's working visa to be approved, and now he is undergoing two years of training to be certified as an Australian GP. Currently completing his fellowship in Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth, he said the shortage of available doctors was obvious. The fellowship process involved exams and being supervised by a vocationally registered GP. "You have to wait for a lot of time to get something done, and it's a bit frustrating," he said. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (APHRA) maintain and enforce GP standards across the country. Dr Hashim said the overlapping regulatory bodies complicated the process, and he had to provide the same documents to both agencies. One aspect limiting internationally trained doctors from becoming fellows has been the lack of supervisors in regional locations. A local practice in Broome was forced to close due to the lack of an in-person supervisor to monitor training practitioners. The only GP clinic in Northampton, in WA's Midwest, also closed earlier this year due to funding and staff issues. Spectrum Health chief executive Phillip Coelho oversees more than 50 medical centres across WA, including the now-defunct Broome practice. Mr Coelho said supervisor incentives were "non-existent" and the work was unpaid, time-consuming, and challenging. "The only way you can get GPs into rural areas is from overseas and the beloved government of ours keeps interfering in the guidelines, making it more difficult," he said. RACGP rural faculty chair Michael Clements said some practices' desire to remove red tape was motivated by money, rather than making healthcare accessible. But he conceded that a lack of supervisors was impacting GP training and availability in some country towns. "Some corporate entities look at a doctor as a money-making machine and will happily put a doctor somewhere … without giving that doctor the due respect and time they deserve," Dr Clements said. He agreed supervisor shortages posed an issue and "one of our greatest" was finding GPs with the capacity to take on trainees. Trainee GP Nicole Wong has taken advantage of the new program from the RACGP that provides training posts in communities. Dr Wong was in her second term of training and moved to Karratha, 1,530km north of Perth, earlier this month. She jumped at the chance to move regionally, particularly for the chance to provide continuous care to locals. "I enjoy camping, I like being out in nature. I'm not fussed that I can't go shopping every weekend, or that if I do go shopping," she said. Dr Wong's training supervisor, Dr Keith Figueiredo, is the director of Panaceum Health based in Geraldton, 1,100km south of Karratha. He said Karratha was one of the first locations to have a remote registrar. "Every week I'll catch up with Nicole to discuss cases or any concerns that she has, plus anytime that she has any queries, she can message me anytime or phone me anytime," Dr Figueiredo said. He said the lack of housing and childcare remained key obstacles to coaxing doctors away from major cities. In a statement, AHPRA said they were focused on reforming pathways for international medical specialists. A spokesperson cited the Expedited Specialist Pathway introduced last year, but this was limited to specialist-qualified doctors and only those trained in the UK, Ireland, or New Zealand are eligible. WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat said state and federal governments were regularly in talks about getting more GPs into regional communities. Other colleges, including the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, also offer remote, over-the-phone supervision programs.
ABC News
15-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Burnt-out doctor's resignation forces change in one-GP town of Cloncurry
The resignation of the last GP in an outback town has forced Queensland health authorities to make changes to attract a replacement. Cameron Hoare became the only GP in Cloncurry, 120 kilometres east of Mount Isa, after purchasing the town's private practice for $2 in 2022. But he left this year, burnt out and defeated, for the sake of his own health. Dr Hoare's role was to run the GP practice for the town of 3,000 and be Cloncurry Hospital's medical superintendent. As part of a hospital service agreement with Queensland Health, the two roles were part-time. The rural generalist said the job-share model pushed him to the brink of mental collapse. "I was holding on by a string," Dr Hoare said, when he announced his resignation in March. Since Dr Hoare's resignation, the roles have been split into two separate full-time positions. Townsville-based outreach doctor Michael Clements purchased the private practice in June and is passionate about providing continuity of care to the people Cloncurry. He said a condition of the sale was that Queensland Health must abandon its job-share model, and separate the hospital and GP practice responsibilities. "He [Dr Hoare] was facing the normal pressures of running a small business, plus the Queensland Health pressures of providing 24/7 care to a hospital for a community that needed it," Dr Clements said. Queensland Health has since hired a second doctor, Jillian McClimon, in Cloncurry as the regional director of medical services. She began the role this week. Dr Clements said before he resigned, Dr Hoare advocated for separating the hospital and private practice roles, but his pleas went unanswered. "Sadly, it took Cameron walking away and the potential collapse of the service entirely to actually get the negotiating table working again." Dr Hoare has now moved from Cloncurry and is between roles in Far North Queensland's Atherton Tablelands. "When I made the decision [to quit] and started moving forward, there was like a weight lifted off my shoulders, and my physical and mental health just improved dramatically," he said. Dr Hoare said rural health worker advocacy groups, including the Rural College of General Practitioners (RCGP), were aware of the pressure facing small-town medical professionals and were doing what they could, but more action was required from governments to stop other doctors falling through the cracks. "I don't think these groups [like the RCGP] need the learnings, I think it's who these groups report to and lobby to and advocate to," he said. North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) chief executive Sean Birgan rejected claims Dr Hoare's concerns went unnoticed. "We acknowledge the efforts that Dr Hoare's put in and also the comments that he's made about the importance that we need to have in supporting the medical workforce," Mr Birgan said. "We believe this model that we've put in place will do that." Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Tim Nicolls said the new NWHHS's medical model in Cloncurry was designed to improve long-term workforce sustainability.
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Eligible medical school candidates turned away in their thousands each year
Medical education experts say the federal government needs to fund more medical school places for local students amid a dire shortage of GPs. The federal Department of Health and Aged Care has forecast that Australia will need a further 8,600 GPs by 2048. Monash University academic teams say that with more funding they could admit more eligible students to be trained in medicine. "We turn away thousands and thousands and thousands of Aussies every year from medical school," Monash University professor and Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand president Michelle Leech said. "They're all smart and they're all good people." Professor Leech said at Monash University's medical school there were 12 to 15 eligible applicants for every single place. In Australia, a student who achieves a 99-plus ATAR scores in the 95th percentile for the medical aptitude test. A competitive percentile is above the 90th percentile. Passing the multi-stage interview process may still not gain qualifications for medical school. Pasindu Bandara is a University of Queensland medical student and founder of Strive Academics, a tutoring company that specialises in helping students get into medical school. "We've seen a lot of students where we feel like they would make great doctors, and they would serve the community well, but one of the different obstacles stops them from doing so," Mr Bandara said. "These are top students, they get the best scores in their schools, they're dux in their schools, they've got heaps of volunteering experience, they give back to their communities, but … on the interview day they don't perform well and they don't get through. "In our last cohort, there was one student with a 99-plus ATAR and a 95th plus percentile score in the UCAT who ended up receiving multiple interview offers but didn't get through that interview stage. "It's for a few different reasons — sometimes students get anxious and they're not ready for an interview-style [or] high stakes day because that's not something high school prepares you for." Mr Bandara also said students who could not afford tutoring were at a disadvantage when it came to applying for medical schools. "Students that can afford this tutoring essentially have one foot in the door in terms of getting a competitive score," he said. The number of medical places for Australian students in universities is controlled by the Commonwealth. But Professor Leech said that number had not grown in the past decade. "The reason I think the Commonwealth has been cautious about expanding places is because over many years we have been getting our medical workforce from overseas," she said. "But it's important to know that international students are funded separately and don't take spots from local students. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Michael Wright agreed. "For too long, we haven't trained enough GPs in Australia," Dr Wright said. "We've been relying a lot on doctors who did their medical degrees overseas coming here and working, and they've been a great addition to our health system. "But we need to pull our weight and make sure that we do train more GPs." In its latest budget, the federal government announced that from 2026 100 new student positions will be shared between 22 medical schools Australia-wide, per year, increasing to 150 by 2028. "More doctors have joined our healthcare system in the last two years, more than any time in the past decade," a federal government spokesperson said. Experts agree the GP shortage is bad in the cities but was worse in the regions. Aspiring medical students living in regional areas require a lower ATAR than their city peers to get into medicine at university. However, Mr Bandara said the rural quotas for universities were a "broken system". "For example at James Cook University, there's a big focus on rural health, but at the end of the day, a lot of those students preference [city hospitals] for their intern year, and they never end up actually servicing these rural areas." Deakin University is one of only six universities Australia-wide that offer rural medical training end-to-end to encourage regional residents to stay locally. It offers 30 rural training places at its Victorian regional campuses in Warrnambool and Ararat and says it fills those positions every year. Rural Doctors Association of Victoria president Dr Louise Manning said having these "end-to-end" programs and "boosting positions in those programs would be much more likely to deliver some more for our workforce". "Hopefully [they encourage] rural general practitioners rather than putting all these spots in the cities," she said. Dr Manning said affordable and available accommodation for doctors, availability of childcare services, and support for partners of doctors were factors affecting regional recruitment. Melbourne University declined to say how many students it turns away from medical school each year.
Associated Press
15-05-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Chichester Private Health Experts, Meyer Clinic, Expand Access to Bridge Gaps Between NHS and Specialist Care
05/15/2025, Chichester // KISS PR Brand Story PressWire // Amid continuing concerns about shortages of GPs, appointment slots, and diagnostic services, Meyer Clinic, a private clinic based in Chichester, has invested in extending its capacity. It offers varied health-focused treatments, tests, and specialist hormonal analytics, with private GP services available two to three days per week. Local politicians have labelled the lack of GP spaces in Sussex a crisis. Insufficient GPs or surgeries, unprecedented pressure on local health services, and limited resources and facilities are spurring more and more people to turn to private alternatives to seek the help they need. Understanding the Challenges in Public Sector Healthcare in West Sussex Part of the demand for private medical support services relates to availability. Many GP surgeries have absorbed patients from closing practices, meaning one professional may be trying to accommodate the needs of huge caseloads, with the average appointment time for those that can find one as little as 9.2 minutes. West Sussex is only one of the many badly hit regions, with 2,000 to 2,499 patients to every individual GP according to BBC data, contributing to the record-low NHS satisfaction rating of 34% - and one in six patients is left waiting over two weeks for an appointment. A secondary difficulty is that, while registering with a GP and managing to secure an appointment can be tricky, the resources available are limited. Brief consultations may be far from sufficient to enable a patient to discuss their concerns, review their medical history, and make key decisions about the tests, medications, procedures, or referrals that may be appropriate for them. Scarcity in resources and funding can mean patients feel unseen and unheard. Many decide to take their health and well-being into their own hands if, for instance, they are unhappy with a prescription that isn't wholly suited to them or haven't been able to find any real resolution to ongoing challenges that are impacting their well-being, energy levels or overall health. The Emergence of Private Health and Wellness Specialists to Reinforce Access to Healthcare Separate research shows that as many as 75% of all adults under 34 consider private healthcare a positive and accessible alternative, and four in ten people aged 18 to 24 already have visited a private practitioner or clinic. This is thought to be down to a proactive attitude and search for immediacy, with younger demographics less prepared to settle for long waiting times, be satisfied with a brief appointment slot, or accept that limited support is an acceptable outcome. Meyer Clinic, an award-winning team providing a range of services from aesthetics and beauty treatments to well-being and hormonal balancing therapies and medical testing services, is one of those who has stepped in to ensure there is always a readily available, professional, and high-quality alternative. Dr Annelize Meyer, Clinic Founder and Medical Director of Meyer Clinic says, ' Our approach, across our specialisms, expertise and clinical know-how is on holistic, 360-degree healthcare and individualised support. That is because addressing an issue or concern in isolation may ignore underlying factors or have a limited effect on a patient's long-term well-being, self-esteem and welfare. For example, a client with a digestive complaint may benefit from a cohesive healthcare strategy that blends hormonal, intolerance, and allergy testing with advanced cancer screenings, microbiome checks, and in-person consultations to explore any potential autoimmune condition that could be contributing to their symptoms. This philosophy not only means our clinicians and practitioners have an excellent chance of uncovering the key reasons for a complaint or concern but can also create ongoing support services, therapies, and follow-up testing. We ensure every client is supported and can continue to consult an independent, dedicated professional to help them restore balance, health, and wellness.' Medical and Healthcare Services Offered by Meyer Clinic's Chichester Practice As a CQC-regulated provider, the clinic provides a broad scope of services, with a focus on preventative treatments, cutting-edge diagnostics, and customised treatment plans. Meyer Clinic has also recently expanded its team, welcoming a registered GP who offers appointments two days per week with the potential to further extend this to include Saturday consultations. These range from the tests and screening services mentioned to cutting-edge facial and body analytics, nutritional planning, blood testing services, vitamin injections, and IV intravenous drips. Meyer Clinic also offers specific services that blend preventative healthcare with aesthetics, such as screening and removal of moles, targeted treatments to assist with thread veins and hair loss, and injectable therapies to address teeth grinding. Prospective new clients interested in learning more can review a more detailed list of services and medical checks available through Meyer Clinic's website or book an initial consultation to speak to a GP, Dr Meyer or one of the centre's therapists in person or online, according to their preferences. Read more about Meyer Clinic- Private Health and Well-being Centre, Meyer Clinic, Receives Accolade at Menopause in Aesthetics (MiA) Awards About Meyer Clinic Meyer Clinic is a private health, wellbeing and aesthetics clinic in Chichester, helping our patients lead empowered lives by ensuring we take a 360-degree full-body approach to health & wellness. Media Contact: Jemma Parnell 01243 771455
