Why work in Australia as a GP?

Here at Prospect Health we are proud that we assist a vast amount of Dr's into Australia, all with different motives and wants from a life down under.

Australia offers excellent packages and is a great place for a Dr to earn a lucrative amount of money whilst living a work life balance giving the ability to spend more time with friends and family, or explore the Australia culture and states.

Here are just a couple of reasons people make the move into Australia:

• More money?– great earning potential.. typical earnings are between?$250,000 (￡120,000) and $350,000 (￡150,000) per annum, with many doctors moving to over ￡15,000 per month after tax, after their first 1-2 years!
• Less hassle?– Australia is growing and its health service is well funded. Practice systems are more doctor focused allowing you to do any 'admin' work inside consultation.
• More medicine?– there’s a national shortage of GPs to see patients. You’ll spend your time consulting not filling in paperwork or dealing with NHS reforms
• Strong medical system?– Australia has an excellent health care system. Australians have longer life expectancy than Brits and the system, based on a mix of private and public provision, is fairer and more inclusive than the US system.

“There is far less pressure to see patient numbers beyond that which one can safely manage”. GP working in Perth

• Strong economy - low unemployment (4.9%). Australia is well placed for economic growth over the next few years. It has many of the mines for the raw materials used by much of south east Asia and it has a strong service sector, linking the Asian economies with the USA. Australia’s per capita GDP is higher than the UK, France or Germany.
• Choice of?jobs - We’ve got GP Jobs in Australia in most states and in all types of location – big cities, small towns, in the bush.
• Exciting outdoors lifestyle - Australia has so much to offer:?white sandy beaches, warm summer evenings, sun-burnt landscapes, amazing coral reefs, snow capped mountains and untouched wilderness.?Plus great cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin and Adelaide.

GP practices are modern and well equipped. Medical practice and procedures are amongst the best in the world. Practices are often multi-disciplinary and more like health centres with dentists and other health care professionals to give team-based care (particularly for chronic illness). In lots of ways, primary care in Australia is what they’re planning for primary care to be in the UK – just without the NHS bureaucracy.?The main difference is that if you’re a GP in the UK you will be salaried or in partnership, in Australia you’re likely to be on a share of the billings (somewhere between 50% to 70%, depending on the deal arranged). This takes a bit of getting used to but works well in practice. After a consultation, GPs issue a bill. Medicare, the Australian healthcare system (like our NHS) pays for 75% of the cost for patients to visit their GP. Patients either pay the balance out of their own pocket or use insurance. There is a separate system for people with low incomes that allows bulk billing (effectively this discounts the bill to 75% so that you just get the Medicare element but saves on admin and debt collection)?Practice overheads and day-to-day management are provided by the practice owner.?Australia is increasingly multi-cultural these days and you’re likely to see and work with people from a wide range of?backgrounds.

What’s the Australian Health care system like?

Australia mixes private and public provision in a way which seems to avoid the worst excesses of?systems elsewhere in the world. As a result, they have an enviable healthcare record with infant mortality at 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. (Britain has 4.8 per 1,000 live births) and life expectancy at birth for Australians is 81.4 years, compared to 79.5 in Britain. Calculations of potentially preventable deaths in advanced economies put Australia at 71 per 100,000 population (for 2002-3) compared to 103 per 100,000 in UK. Healthcare expenditure in Australia as a proportion of GDP is 8.9 per cent, 0.5 per cent more than Britain.

Thomas Tallis International Business Developer at Prospect Health