Thirteen health professionals – including four general practitioners (GPs) and nine allied health professionals – are helping to ease the effects of workforce shortages in North Queensland after receiving an incentive package funded by Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN).

New Tully Medical Centre Resident Medical Officer Dr Baylie Fletcher is one of those GPs.

“Working in this position has been incredible, and I intend to stay in Tully for as long as I can,” she said.

NQPHN Chief Executive Officer Robin Whyte said NQPHN was working to help address the shortage of GPs and allied health professionals in North Queensland's rural and remote communities.

“Workforce is a national conversation, but across our NQPHN catchment area we are working on a variety of local solutions to attract health care professionals,” Ms Whyte said.

“We recognise the workforce shortage is a growing crisis with widespread impact on our communities, and we know general practices and providers are having difficulty recruiting and retaining GPs and primary care staff.

“Our priority is to build our North Queensland primary care workforce capacity and capability to address workforce shortages.”

For the past two years, NQPHN, in partnership with Health Workforce Queensland, has funded incentive packages through the Rural Workforce Enhancement Program, to address allied health professional shortages.

NQPHN recently extended its incentive packages to all primary care professionals in northern Queensland with up to $5,000 in funding available to individual clinicians depending on the profession and region.

Support is available for domestic relocation travel, rental assistance, continuing professional development registration costs, travel, and accommodation, and professional memberships for 12 months.

“We are pleased to extend the packages to all primary care professionals in the NQPHN catchment area, including GPs, and there will be further incentives to attract GPs to the areas with the most critical needs,” Ms Whyte said.

Since the release of the new workforce enhancement campaign in March 2023, the program has placed nine allied health professionals and four GPs in the region, including Tully, Weipa, and Clermont.

“The Tully practice has been able to attract a new GP to service Tully and Mission Beach, given the closure of the practice in Mission Beach,” Ms Whyte said. “We know the incentives are a small step, however, they are having a big impact for the people in our communities, while also relieving some of the pressure for general practices.”

Dr Fletcher loves working and living in the small rural community of Tully.

“The best aspects of my work include the variety, the constant learning, and the sense comradery that comes with this environment,” Dr Fletcher said.

“The main challenge, and it is a good challenge, is related to the new conditions and questions that patients are presenting with day to day, some of which I have not had to deal with working in a hospital.

“The greatest success I’ve had is having patients come back and ask to be a regular patient of mine.

“This means so much to me and makes me so grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. This is the beauty of GP work.”

Health Workforce Queensland Health Workforce Solutions Team Leader Sandra Bukumirovic said making the move to rural North Queensland might be the best decision health professionals could make to progress their career.

“Jobs are challenging, but rewarding, and offer health professionals a variety of presentations in addition to ongoing on-the-job learning, which would ultimately lead to career progression,” she said.

“Rural communities offer a sense of belonging and have the utmost appreciation for the health professionals who look after their health care needs.”

Health Workforce Queensland anticipates more grant uptake in the future, with a “number of potential candidates in the pipeline for existing vacancies”.

Cassowary Coast Council Mayor Mark Nolan said each new health care professional who chose to come to the region was a win.

“It’s great news to have an additional GP in Tully,” he said.

“There is still a lot of work that we need to do to address the health care needs of our community, and this can only be done through collaboration between all levels of government, providers, stakeholders, and the community to seek innovative place-based outcomes.”

Meanwhile, the NQPHN Health Needs Assessment (HNA) 2022-24 demonstrates the need to develop and support the implementation of innovative primary care workforce solutions and new workforce models across North Queensland to respond to the significant primary care workforce shortages.

“Responding to this need, NQPHN has again partnered with Health Workforce Queensland, the University of Queensland, and Mater Research Institute to offer the Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) model across the North Queensland region,” Ms Whyte said.

“This model incorporates an additional GP into the already-established practice team, who will then visit in-person every six months, at a minimum, to meet and support patients, and then further support the same patients via telehealth.”

More information about the program can be found at www.healthworkforce.com.au/rural-workforce-enhancement-campaign