About the Rural Primary Care Stream
The year after graduating from university, medical students need to complete an internship to gain general registration. Internships are mainly hospital based.
There is a large number of junior doctors working in the public hospital system in cities. They sometimes have trouble accessing pathways to further training in rural and remote regions.
The Rural Primary Care Stream helps fund training and supervision in rural primary care settings to ensure junior doctors moving into these settings continue to provide high-quality care.
Goals
The Rural Primary Care Stream:
- encourages junior doctors to work in rural general practice
- creates new jobs in rural general practice
- helps junior doctors working in rural general practices to gain fellowship by supporting their training and supervision.
Measures
The Rural Primary Care Stream supports junior doctors through 2 measures:
- The Rural Junior Doctor Training Innovation Fund allows rurally based junior doctors to experience working in primary health care settings.
- The More Doctors for Rural Australia (MDRAP) support package provides payments to offset the cost of supervision and education of junior doctors. See the MDRAP guidelines for more details.