$1000 reward for your community group in the Find Doctors For Beechworth campaign
As a patient of our Surgery, you will be aware that we continue to be affected by the national doctor shortage with fewer appointments available than are required for our community.
We are working to provide timely access to medical care and in this update we share:
- what we are doing to recruit more doctors,
- the current situation with doctor numbers and forecasts for how this will change in the new year
- advice on booking appointments and
- a community campaign offering a $1000 reward for the Beechworth and district community group of your choice if you Find Doctors for Beechworth.
National doctor shortage
There continues to be a national shortage of doctors and all GP practices in our region are struggling to find enough doctors to meet demand.
We are always recruiting for additional doctors; below you can read more about what we are doing and how you can help.
Formerly 44% of medical students chose to specialise as a GP. This has dropped to 13% for this year’s graduates.
Our situation
Doctors and appointments
By the end of January 2025 we will have the equivalent of 4.1 full-time doctors, and by August we’ll be down to 3.3. Two years ago we had the equivalent of 5.5 full-time doctors.
Dr Bryn Thomas recently left the surgery which reduced our capacity by 65 appointments a week.
We need at least two new full-time doctors which would give us 170 extra appointments a week.
In the interim we are sourcing locum doctors, however these are not always available and generally only stay for two weeks. We know this is not a permanent solution.
Same day appointments
We make one duty doctor available every day for urgent appointments. You can phone at 9am to make a booking.
We have recently introduced a triage system. When you phone seeking an appointment for that day, you will be put through to a nurse who will ask you questions to assess the urgency of your condition. The nurse will allocate appointments based on need. This system still has limitations on the number of people that a doctor can see.
Book ahead for non-urgent needs
As doctor numbers are low, we also advise that you book more than two months in advance for an appointment with a specific doctor.
We understand it is very frustrating to not be able to get an appointment with the doctor you want when you want it. You can read more about our efforts to change this.
Our recruitment activities
- Recruiting doctors from the UK
We have recently engaged a UK-based specialist doctor recruitment agency to find us additional doctors. This process can take between six and 10 months.
We have also applied to be an approved sponsor with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship so doctors can get the visa they need to work here. We will cover the relocation costs of any doctors that come here.
- Find Doctors for Beechworth campaign
This is where you come in. Is there a GP in your family or friends’ network? Might they be interested in working in Beechworth?
We’re offering a $1000 reward for the community group of your choice if you put us in touch with a doctor who ends up working in our practice.
We’re also calling for community groups and businesses to support the campaign. You can find more details on our website about how to get involved and register your community group or please speak to one of our staff.
You can write to members of parliament:
- Helen Haines MP, Member for Indi to ask her to continue her advocacy for GP attraction programs for rural communities.
- Mark Butler MP, the federal Health Minister calling for government action to assist rural communities.
We have drafted a letter for you to add to, or adjust, and then post or email to them: Letter to MPs
You can read all the details about the Find Doctors For Beechworth campaign on our website. https://beechworthsurgery.com.au/find-doctors-for-beechworth/
There’s information for prospective doctors about our practice and living in Beechworth and surrounds: https://beechworthsurgery.com.au/work-with-us/
- The annual Victorian Registrars’ program
We also try to recruit registrars; fully qualified doctors in the last phase of their specialised training to become GPs.
We register our opportunities every year, registrars indicate which practices they are interested in, we interview them and then make them an offer.
This year we interviewed three registrars but none accepted our offer. Most prefer a city location. In previous years we would interview eight to 10 doctors.
- Advertising
We constantly advertise with the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria for both permanent and locum GP positions.
Thank you
We know that not being able to book an appointment when you need one is very frustrating.
We thank all our patients for their ongoing understanding as we continue to look for ways to offer more appointments. We look forward to having you join our campaign to find doctors for our community.
