Josephine Canceri was inspired to become a rural specialist GP after falling ill while on a placement in remote Western Australia.Credit:Edwina Pickles
Just 13.1 per cent of medical graduates say they want to pursue a career as a GP,the lowest proportion since 2012,according to the latest Medical Deans Report survey of more than 1000 graduates.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Nicole Higgins said the decline was “a reflection of the last 10 years,where there’s been an undervaluing of general practice”. She hoped the federal government’srecent changes to bulk-billing incentives would encourage more graduates to pursue it.
“It takes 10 years[of training] to be a specialist GP,so we need to value it,” she said.
Just 1394 medical graduatesapplied for general practice training through the college in 2023,a 30 per cent drop since 2017. The 1248 accepted into the program is slightly down on the 2022 intake of 1313 graduates.
Nearly 10,000 additional GPs will need to be recruited by 2030 to avoid a serious workforce shortage,a Deloitte Access Economic report from 2019 found. Urban areas are expected to suffer the most.
Canceri,who grew up in suburban Sydney,is among the growing number of medical students who intend to train as rural generalists,who are GPs who receive additional training in emergency medicine and other specialties such as obstetrics or mental health.