$3.8m in grants for GPs

Healthy boost for practices’ after-hours services

SEVEN GP clinics across Tasmania will unveil new afterhours services after receiving a combined $3.8m under the third round of a state government grant program.

Your Hobart Doctor, Launceston Health Hub, Ochre Bruny Island, Ochre St Helens’ Women’s Health Clinic, Newstead X-ray, Deloraine and Westbury Medical Centre, and Cygnet Family Practice have all received funding under round 3 of the $8m GP After Hours Initiative.

Dr Jerome Muir-Wilson, owner of grant recipient Launceston Health Hub, said on Sunday he would use the support to fund an after-hours mental health professional.

His centre, a recipient of a previous grant under the After Hours Initiative, had offered after-hours services – it is open until 9pm on weeknights and 9am-5pm on public holidays and weekends – for 3000 consecutive days, he said.

About 30 patients attend between 6-9pm nightly and 100-200 each day on weekends.

The Health Hub also received a grant under the latest round of the state government’s Hospital Avoidance Co-Investment Fund towards its proposed $25m expansion.

The plans involve a new sixstorey building on the site, housing medical imaging facilities, new consulting rooms, pathology and day clinic, and additional parking.

Dr Muir-Wilson also discussed the national GP shortage, which has hit rural Tasmania especially hard.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said on Friday there were 99 GP jobs being advertised across the state. The Australian Medical Students’ Association says only 15 per cent of medical students are pursuing a career in general practice.

On Friday, it was announced the state and federal governments would pilot a new single-employer GP training model in Tasmania, wherein up to 20 GP registrars specialising in rural medicine would be employed by the state government for up to four years while in training.

Currently, registrars cycle between as many as six clinics during training. This acts as a disincentive, as registrars do not accrue benefits associated with length of service.

Dr Muir-Wilson approved of the proposal. “It’s harder to recruit a doctor in St Helens or Smithton than it is here in Launceston,” he said.

He said about half of GP registrars were women who, under a single-employer model, would be able to, for instance, take maternity leave during their training so as “not to be disadvantaged”.

Dr Muir-Wilson said the GP crisis was “only going to get worse” before it improves.

“We’ve got around 100 vacancies (99) in the state and there’s only 16 trainees starting in general practices next week,” he said.