Rural incentive program australia

The NRLP aims to maintain and improve access to quality care for rural communities by increasing the locum support available to the rural medical workforce. Support to allow existing rural doctors to have time to rest and undertake ongoing education and training is a crucial retention mechanism. The ROALS operates by providing eligible host doctors specialist and GP obstetricians, and GP anaesthetists with subsidised support to offset the cost of obtaining a locum.

Subsidies are available for locum costs, travel time and travel costs. Hosts can claim up to 14 days of locum support per financial year. The following key areas were identified for improvement:. Rural LEAP originally commenced in early RPGP enables procedural GPs in rural and remote areas to access a grant to attend relevant training, upskilling and skills maintenance activities. The Program has two components offering a grant to cover up to:. Rural LEAP provides financial assistance to urban GPs who undertake emergency medicine training and commit to a four week 20 working days general practice locum placement in a rural locality within a two year period.

The program currently substantially meets its targets. An external review was conducted in April Anecdotal evidence suggests that Rural LEAP participants are committing to additional rural locum work over and above the required four weeks. While recognising this, the review has identified some inconsistencies between the different locum programs in terms of the support they provide to different professional groups and the administrative costs of delivering this funding.

There may be potential for administrative efficiencies by consolidating or streamlining these activities within the one administrative framework, while still enabling funds to be directed towards the different professional groups. A competitive tender process could be conducted to appoint one administrator. There would be benefits to this approach by co-locating all locum support activities with the one agency, making locum services easier to access to rural professionals.

RWAs, located in each state and the Northern Territory, are funded by the Commonwealth to improve the recruitment and retention of GPs to regional, rural and remote areas ASGC-RA 2—5 which includes helping communities to recruit GPs, finding appropriate placements for doctors who want to relocate to rural Australia, assisting with the costs of relocation, supporting families with fitting into a new community and helping doctors access the necessary infrastructure, support and training.

RWAs also promote rural and remote general practice to Australian and international markets and provide support to international and Australian medical graduates moving to rural areas, with a focus on job orientation, training and education support.

RHWA also provides national advocacy and representation, coordination and administration, and management of national data relating to rural workforce activities. In order to target some of the preconceived notions regarding rural practice, DoHA has conducted a range of communication activities under the RHWS. These activities are aimed at demystifying rural practice and promoting the benefits of regional, rural and remote opportunities.

This includes the Rural Health Champions Project, a select group of medical professionals who speak, write and blog about their experiences in rural practice.

The penetration of this initiative, in terms of its impact on influencing metropolitan health professionals, is difficult to assess. Under this program RWAs are required to collect and report on a set of KPIs in relation to the recruitment and retention of GPs in regional, rural and remote Australia. Each state or territory has different benchmarks under the various KPIs. The inconsistent basis of funding for RWAs, along with different performance benchmarks, suggests there may be scope for efficiencies in administration arrangements.

Nevertheless, the program appears to have been successful in recruiting and retaining doctors in rural areas. The implementation of more rigorous data reporting arrangements in response to the findings of the review of RRGPP has provided a basis for future workforce planning and the capacity to identify and respond to long-term workforce policy issues. The administrative arrangements for the program should be considered in light of the ongoing role of Medicare Locals, and the potential for efficiencies to be gained through contracting RWAs through RHWA.

Specific recommendations from RHWA regarding the RRGPP include ensuring that from July funding should be sufficient to reflect the breadth of core services provided, the expected increase in Australian trained graduates and the demonstrated need to continue international health professional recruitment and increase in workforce targets and geographical coverage resulting from the change from the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas RRMA classification system to ASGC-RA in This could be a valuable contribution to supporting students as they commence their rural and remote health careers and may provide an avenue for postgraduate data collection and feedback gathering.

Administratively it may be possible to consider converting to a header agreement with RHWA, provided this is consistent with other activities to be delivered by RWAs. The efficiencies generated by this approach would need to exceed the overall risks. The difference in benchmarks for KPIs across jurisdictions should be considered as part of any future negotiations and a more consistent national funding methodology for the RWAs should be developed in consultation with stakeholders.

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It will be used to make improvements to this website. The RHWS is underpinned by two key reforms: Transition of program eligibility to a new geographic remoteness classification system; and Scaling or gearing of incentives and return of service obligations RSO to provide greatest benefits to the most remote communities.

Programs under the strategy are listed below: The General Practice Rural Incentives Program GPRIP , which provides incentives to encourage medical practitioners to move to and remain in a regional, rural or remote area. The HECS Reimbursement Scheme, which introduced scaling to fast track the repayment of medical school fees for doctors practising in outer regional, remote or very remote areas.

The Scaling Incentive for overseas trained doctors OTDs , which enables a reduction of the ten year Medicare moratorium for participants practising in a regional, rural or remote location.

Scaling of Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship and Bonded Medical Places return of service obligations to encourage bonded scholars to complete their obligations in more remote areas. The Department also conducted a range of communication activities under the RHWS to address some of the preconceived notions regarding rural practice and promote the benefits of regional, rural and remote opportunities.

Top of page Proposed regional incentive model One of the major themes arising from the stakeholder consultation process conducted as part of this review has been the need for programs to be more flexible and better targeted at the regional level. Top of page Figure 4. Box 4. Table of contents Executive summary Acronyms and abbreviations Chapter 1: Review background. Chapter 2: Health workforce context. Chapter 3: Ensuring a capable and qualified health workforce.

Chapter 4: Addressing health workforce shortages in regional, rural and remote Australia. Chapter 6: Managing the supply of health workers to meet community needs. Chapter 7: Nursing and midwifery workforce — education, retention and sustainability. Chapter 8: Developing the dental and allied health workforce. Chapter 9: Opportunities for reform in program delivery and policy development. Feedback Provide feedback If you would like a response please complete our enquiries form.

Comments Comments will be used to improve web content and will not be responded to. Enter the third , fifth and last digits of Submit feedback Privacy statement. However, there is currently insufficient emphasis on support for other health professionals. Expenditure on the General Practice Rural Incentives Program GPRIP needs to be better targeted for equitable workforce outcomes by: Adopting a modified rural classification system and better targeting financial incentives towards smaller regional settings in Australian Standard Geographic Classification — Remoteness Areas ASGC-RA RA2 and 3, while maintaining expenditure in RA4 and 5; and Designing and implementing a new capped, decentralised incentive approach delivered through regionally based workforce development agencies such as Medicare Locals and Rural Workforce Agencies.

Movement to a regionally based approach in the medium to longer term is strongly preferable as it offers both fiscal certainty and the opportunity to enhance outcomes.

Determining need at the local and regional level is likely to be more effective than the current centralised entitlement system. This approach also provides flexibility to direct resources to the recruitment and retention of other professional groups, subject to local workforce requirements and identified health needs.

Medium term — new models of financial support will require extensive consultations with stakeholders and the development of revised administrative systems. Any change to a new incentive system should feature an appropriate transition period, of at least one financial year, and further consultation with stakeholders about the detailed requirements and funding allocation systems. Arrangements for supporting rurally based GP registrars should be considered as part of this process.

While the latter scheme already covers nurses, the benefits and costs of participation by rural allied health professionals should also be examined. Integration should achieve administrative savings and an ability to target HECS forgiveness in a responsive manner to projected workforce shortages. The Rural Health Continuing Education RHCE program Stream 2 provides a good basis for supporting postgraduate training in allied health and nursing, but is significantly oversubscribed.

The Commonwealth should consider expanding this program and linking it to other training initiatives, subject to the availability of further funding. The Commonwealth should progress the consolidation of the administration of the various discipline-based locum programs into an integrated rural multidisciplinary locum provision service.

Medical practitioners can access WIP-DS payments based on the volume of work they have undertaken in rural and remote locations. You can only claim two sessions per day irrespective of the number of hours you may actually work that day. Rural Workforce Agency Victoria RWAV is a not-for-profit government funded organisation improving health care for rural, regional and Aboriginal communities in Victoria.

RWAV provides a range of activities and support to improve the recruitment and retention of health professionals to rural and regional Victoria. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. Health Professionals. What we do for What We Offer.

Example: level of activity required under the FPS. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Incentives are paid quarterly and directly to participating practices Registered nurses, enrolled nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners are eligible health professionals that can be engaged in all locations.

The incentive payment amount depends on practice size and the hours worked by the health professionals at the practice. Which practices will be eligible to receive rural loading? This information includes: practice name and main address eligibility details, such as accreditation, public liability insurance, and indemnity insurance bank account details contact details location details ownership details general practitioner and nurse practitioner details your SWPE for the WIP - Practice Stream calculations.

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