In an unprecedented show of joint state and federal government cooperation, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff have announced a statewide rollout of a new employment model for general practitioners in training.
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The model will allow doctors training to specialise in rural medicine to have the choice of being employed by the Tasmanian Health Service (THS) for their training period.
"This will allow for a seamless transition throughout their hospital and community-based GP training placements," Mr Rockliff said.
Mr Albanese said the program would ensure people working in the hospital system could also get the training they need to become GPs.
"This is about boosting primary care and taking pressure off the hospital system," he said.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said that this was a level of cooperation between the Tasmanian state and federal governments that hadn't been seen in the past.
"[Mr Rockliff] wrote to me as soon as he read the budget and saw our commitment, because he wanted not a pilot program, but a statewide system.
"He wanted to put money on the table to scale this up and he wanted us to co-invest in that," Mr Butler said.
The announcement was welcomed by the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
"The AMA at both state and federal levels had been negotiating with both governments to make the initiative a reality, with the single employer model having been developed by the AMA over several years and a key ask of the AMA's plan to modernise Medicare," AMA president Professor Steve Robson said.
Mr Butler said that fewer medical graduates choosing a career in General Practice was causing "challenges for tomorrow".
It used to be about 50 per cent of young people coming out of medical school would choose general practice as their lifelong career; that figure is now less than 14 per cent, Mr Butler said.
"That is just not enough to secure a sustainable workforce".
The $13 million program will be jointly funded; the federal government has committed $8 million, and the state government will contribute $5 million.
"This is a great partnership between federal and state governments that will deliver results," Mr Rockliff said.