THE Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has called on the Government to commit additional funding to address Australia’s GP shortage after 1504 junior doctors have accepted specialist training for 2025, which includes completing at least a year of training outside a major metropolitan area.

This follows work to place 177 general GPs in training in rural communities that had not had a registrar in years.

Of the 1504 domestic medicine graduates joining the Federal Government-funded AGPT program, 844 accepted a general training pathway, 583 a rural pathway, and 77 composite rural placements.

The RACGP trains around 90 per cent of Australia’s GPs, including those practising in regional, rural, remote, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

RACGP President, Dr Nicole Higgins said it is clear Australia can train enough GPs but warned the Government must make lasting investments to tackle Australia’s GP shortage and ensure Australians can see a GP regularly.

“This is a record to be proud of, and the growth in training numbers reflects not just that the Government has given us the flexibility we need to accommodate prospective trainees and the funding to enable them to take placements, but the great experience junior doctors have had in GP training,” she said.

“This 20 per cent growth in GPs in training is a sign the GP workforce is recovering.

“But it can’t be taken as a sign the job is done. The story we’ve been told, and that we’ve often told each other as GPs, is one of general practice in decline.

“These training results show us we can turn that around with the right investments, because funding general practice gets results.

“We’ve shown we can train more GPs, and we’ve shown we can get GPs to the communities who need them most, including rural and regional communities. We just need the funding to sustain this growth.”

Dr Higgins also praised the Government’s rapid support for College requests to enable more junior doctors to take up training places, including funding for accommodation, travel, and childcare that allowed the RACGP to place 177 general GPs in training in rural communities that had not had a registrar in years.

“The Government has listened to what GPs need to ensure more Australians can see a GP in the future, and that’s allowed us to deliver a fantastic result,” she said.

“Where we’ve presented them with a solution, they’ve heard us, and they have acted to cut through bureaucratic processes that could have otherwise left a community a GP short.

“We need the Government to continue to focus on solutions, with major investments in general practice and incentives for universities to play their part in getting GPs into communities, especially outside the capitals.”

“Everyone has a right to see a GP who knows their medical history when they need to,” she said.

“The cost of delivering care has gone up, now funding for patients to see a GP must too, or we risk going the way of the US with its two-tiered health system.

“Our patients deserve healthy lives. This and future governments must commit to funding so patients don’t delay care until they end up in hospital – or find themselves left waiting in ambulances outside over-capacity hospitals.

“General practice spending fell from seven per cent of Australia’s total health spending in 2012, to 5.7 per cent on 2022 as spending on hospitals surged.

“The Government’s tripled bulk billing incentive may have added more bulk billed appointments, especially for children and in rural areas, but patients are showing they need more support.”

WITH 1504 domestic medicine graduates joining the Federal Government-funded AGPT program, a 20 per cent growth on 2024, it is hopeful that more GPs will be able to get into communities in regional and rural areas. Photo: SUPPLIED.