GPSA welcomes the Albanese government’s plans to grow more GPs and RGs for our communities
25 February 2025
Prime Minister Albanese’s announcement of increased Commonwealth support for primary care places across the educational spectrum will see 400 extra vocational GPs-in-training by 2028, bolstered by 400 new prevocational rotations in primary healthcare and an additional 150 CSPs for medical students in this same timeframe.
“The Prime Minister’s pledge to fund such a significant number of trainees to cater to the future primary care needs of Australians is encouraging for today’s GP workforce and the community we serve, and a potential game changer for GP supervisors and training practices,” says Brisbane-based GP Dr Srishti Dutta, Chair of General Practice Supervision Australia (GPSA).
“GPSA’s members can take heart from the pre-election focus on GP training, not to be overshadowed by the proposed $8.5 billion boost to Medicare.”
As the national peak for GP supervision representing more than 10,000 contributors to the development of a robust GP workforce, GPSA has openly supported the advocacy efforts of General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) focused on system reforms to bring the pay and leave entitlements of GP registrars in line with those of their hospital-based counterparts.
“New federal government incentives addressing the drop in pay experienced upon leaving hospital employment for GP training, along with mechanisms to fund parental and study leave for trainees, go a long way to achieving what the next generation of GPs and RGs are seeking – importantly without placing any additional burden on the practice teams dedicated to supporting them with high-quality training at the coalface of general practice,” says Dr Dutta.
“The reforms announced yesterday are received with gratitude and hope by GPSA, as is the advice from Minister Butler’s office regarding the planned indexation of supervisor and practice subsidies from the first semester of 2026, something we have advocated for strongly since the introduction of the National Consistent Payment (NCP) framework.”
GPSA remains committed to increasing the respect due to GP supervisors, to seeing this evidenced via the streamlining of supervision processes and securing of remuneration commensurate with the effort that goes into perpetuating general practice through the apprenticeship model of GP training.
“The success of policies designed to increase the number of junior doctors entering GP training relies on the acknowledgment of the opportunity costs incurred by supervisors and training sites, and meaningful supports enabling them to optimise the largely uncompensated time and effort it takes to convert the training pipeline into the high-quality GPs and RGs we need for the future.
“With a strong and sustainable supervisor workforce, these policies can drive a vast improvement for Australian healthcare; we look forward to working with government and sector partners to ensure long-term workforce strategies make the GP supervisor role a career destination in its own right.”
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