General Practice Workforce
| Name: |
General Practice Workforce |
| Number of Divisions: |
3 |
| Year Established: |
1998 |
| State: |
Tasmania |
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| Physical Address: |
| Suite 5, 7 High Street |
| LAUNCESTON TAS 7250 |
| Australia |
| Postal Address: |
| PO Box 104 |
| NEWSTEAD TAS 7250 |
| Australia |
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General Practice Workforce is a new incorporated association that has taken over the Rural Workforce Support arm of business previously delivered through Tasmanian General Practice Divisions Limited.
The objective of General Practice Workforce is to support and improve the health status of Tasmanian communities by facilitating adequate and sustainable access to general practice services across the State.
General Practice Workforce promotes careers in general practice in Tasmania and provides recruitment and retention services to attract general practitioners and other staff to work in General Practice.
General Practice Workforce currently delivers services to general practices in rural areas of the State (across RRMAs 3-7)1.
Currently there are 94 practices and 267 GPs in RRMAs 3-7 across Tasmania.
1. RRMA divides Australia's states and territories into metropolitan, rural and remote zones:
RRMA 1 = capital cities e.g. Hobart
RRMA 2 = other metropolitan centres / urban populations > 100 000
RRMA 3 = large rural centres / urban centre populations 25 000 to 99 999 e.g. Launceston
RRMA 4 = small rural centres / urban centre populations 10 000 to 24 999 e.g. Devonport
RRMA 5 = other rural areas / urban centre populations < 10 000 e.g. St Helens
RRMA 6 = remote centre s/ urban centre populations > 5000
RRMA 7 = other remote centres / urban centre populations < 5000 e.g. Strahan
For further information refer to
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/health-workforce-bmp-rrma.htm
Major Achievements:
We are the organisation which assesses all OTDs who wish to work as GPs in rural Tasmania on behalf of the Medical Council of Tasmania. This allows us to monitor and support all OTDs preparing for FRACGP and AMC exams
The GP Atlas website was developed to act as a "Lonely Planet" type guide to all things general practice in rural Tasmania. This has been an excellent tool in recruitment and retention.
Challenges for the Future:
Major challenges include promoting rural general practice to undergraduates; adequately supporting OTDs and their families as they integrate into local communities; supporting communities without adequate practice infrastructure to build this in order to be able to recruit; assisting practices with their business models to remain viable.
