Tasmania's GP shortage: urgent Medicare reforms needed

Tasmania remains in a precarious situation now and for at least the next five years as a generation of GPs look to hang up their stethoscopes.

And this pressure is far greater in rural and regional Tasmania than in Launceston, Hobart, Burnie and Devonport.

The imminent closure of the GP clinic at Richmond is another example of how the small business model is no longer viable for many rural practices.

Tasmania - and the rest of Australia - needs the Federal Government to increase the Medicare rebate to address the issue.

General Practice Training Tasmania (GPTT Inc) wants to acknowledge that the Tasmanian Government is working hard to address the chronic GP shortage in this State.

Part of this ongoing strategy has been the Tasmanian Health Service's adoption of GPTT Inc's GP Solution, with an incentive package to attract up to 40 new GPs to rural and regional Tasmania for five years, including a $100,000 settlement allowance to practice in rural and regional areas.

Due to long-term disinvestment in Medicare for primary care, all stakeholders - the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the State and Federal Governments - are battling years of disinterest in general practice among medical students and junior doctors.

But in 2024-25, that is changing. Now, more people want to train as GPs than the RACGP has positions for. In fact, the RACGP filled all of its 2025 positions for the first time in years.

We already know that it's harder to recruit a GP for rural and remote towns. But when they become involved with a rural practice and become embedded in the community, they do stay.

GPTT Inc remains committed to assisting and driving health outcomes in Tasmania alongside the State Government and THS.

We have appointed Dr Ginita Oberoi as our first CEO, a GP with enormous experience in the Tasmanian health system.

Based on the North-West Coast, Dr Oberoi has been a RACGP Medical Educator, training junior doctors in hospitals on the Coast in primary and community care for more than 5 years.

She has also been a member of the Postgraduate Medical Education Council of Tasmania, looking after interns and Resident Medical Officers.

The bottom line for the continued strategy of increasing GP numbers Statewide is simple: the more GPs Tasmania has in the field, the less people will present to hospital Emergency Departments Statewide.

We will continue to encourage the Government to consider additional assistance for existing clinics Statewide.

GPTT Inc knows many GP clinics Statewide are crying out for extra GPs.

GPTT Inc would encourage the Government to expand its GP Now program. It could recruit GPs and assign them to private clinics, which would then pay the GPs' salaries.

GPTT Inc believes the Tasmanian Government is on the right track. But there is a way to go in the next 10 years.

Paul Viney, GPTT Inc Chair