Financial matters


‘There is a real misconception that GP’s don’t get paid well, but I work part-time and make a really good wage. I’m not under stress from being a GP as I have a good balance between work and life. I think General Practice is a great package deal. Every day is challenging and interesting and each day I learn new things and ways to approach and solve problems.’

GP SYNERGY NEW ENGLAND/NORTHWEST REGISTRAR, DR CASEY WADWELL


GP Registrar terms and conditions

Full-time Registrars work a minimum of 38 hours/week. This includes education time and administration time. The actual hours of consulting or seeing patients, are usually 27-33 hours per week. This can vary, especially in rural areas.

Remuneration is really determined by how many patients are seen and whether there is bulk billing or private billing. The GP Registrar can negotiate an hourly rate of pay and/or payment of a percentage of gross billings generated.

GP Registrars are guaranteed minimum terms and conditions of employment as agreed by GPRA and NGPSA.

Incentives

The Australian Government has developed incentive schemes to help promote rural practice and address the shortage of GPs in rural and remote Australia.

Some changes will be implemented in these programs on 1 July 2010. The ASGA-RA classification scheme will be used instead of RRMA classifications. The map of districts shows the RA2 – 5 areas which mostly attract the incentives. There is also some consolidation of the schemes to simplify and improve payment and eligibility requirements.

The General Practice Rural Incentives Program (GPRIP) aims to promote careers in rural medicine, as well as recognising and retaining long-serving medical practitioners in rural and remote communities.

It consolidates the Rural Retention Program (RRP) and the Registrars Rural Incentive Payments Scheme (RRIPS), and introduces a relocation incentive grant. Two components target GPs:

The change in classification of rural districts and some regional centres’ new classification will increase the amount of incentive payments available to GPs.

The Outer Metropolitan Relocation Incentive Grant (RIG) Program encourages GPs who are currently based in inner metropolitan areas of the capital cities to relocate to outer metropolitan areas.  New fellows of the RACGP who complete the general pathway of the AGPT program, apply within 3 months and have been recognised by Medicare, may be eligible if they choose to work in an outer metropolitan practice, even if their final training placement was in a rural or outer metropolitan area.

Grants of up to $30,000 are provided to doctors who join an existing outer metropolitan practice and are committed to working there for two years.  Doctors may be entitled to $40,000 if they set up their own outer metropolitan practice and work full-time at their new approved location for at least three years.  Grants are available on a pro-rata basis for doctors who wish to work part-time, less than 30 hours per week.   For the purposes of the RIG, full time hours are 30 hours per week.

Further RIG information for GPs
Further RIG information for GP Registrars approaching fellowship
Maps of RIG outer metropolitan locations

The Training for Rural and Remote Procedural General Practitioners Program supports GPs in rural and remote areas undertaking relevant procedural and emergency medicine up-skilling and skills maintenance training. Some urban based doctors providing services in rural and remote areas may be eligible for the program. From 1 July 2010 eligible rural and remote locations will be identified under the ASG-RA classification scheme.