Medical deans say GP funding and pay review ‘urgently needed’
The deans of 24 medical schools have called for GPs to be fairly funded and paid in comparison with other specialties in a newly released position paper. Dr Chance Pistoll and Dr Rebecca Starkie from the Department of General Practice and Primary Care, and Professor Stephen Trumble from the Department of Medical Education, are part of the working group that contributed to the development of this paper
MDANZ General Practice Paper - September 2023
The recommendation is among a series of proposals outlined by the Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand peak body in a 32-page document, The Doctors our Communities Need: Building, Sustaining and Supporting the General Practice Workforce in Australia and New Zealand.
The authors state that their work describes steps required ‘to build the skilled, sufficient and sustained GP workforce Australia and New Zealand needs’.
The paper highlights existing workforce challenges, including concerns about the number of GPs nearing retirement, a growing population with an increasing burden of chronic disease, as well as a declining interest in general practice as a career path among medical students.
This article originally appeared in RACGP on 12 September 2023 here.