Doctors have welcomed the federal government's approval for two Eyre Peninsula medical clinics as rural doctor training sites to help attract and retain urgently needed GPs in the regions.
The Streaky Bay Medical Clinic and Mid Eyre Medical Practice in Cleve have been approved under the Remote Vocational Training Scheme (RVTS).
It enables each trainee to access up to $501,000 in income support during their placement.
"[It's] a very important step in attracting younger GPs in their training to rural and remote locations such as ours," said Jonas Woolford, chair of the Streaky Bay Medical Clinic board.
Mr Woolford said retaining doctors was not as simple as getting approved to be a training site.
He said the clinic was approved under the RVTS a couple of years ago but was unable to recruit candidates because eligibility criteria was "tight".
Another issue was not having a resident doctor that could supervise training amid the uncertainty of COVID-19, he said.
While there had been some interest from young doctors, Mr Woolford said he hoped it would increase now there was more stability with a resident doctor at the practice.
Preventing burnout
SA Rural Doctors Association treasurer Scott Lewis said the RVTS was a "great way of recruiting doctors and getting them to stay long term in the community they've trained in".
He said while there was no guarantee the trainees would not leave once their training ended, the hope was that they developed a strong relationship with the community.
Dr Lewis retired from being Wudinna's sole GP at the end of 2021 but said if he was able to recruit another doctor and avoid burnout, he would not have left his practice.
"I was trying to recruit another doctor to Wudinna for around seven years with no success."
Incentivising women
Anna Kearney, a GP obstetrician who completed her training in Port Lincoln through a similar program, said the financial incentives were attractive but getting doctors to stay required more.
"I think a lot of people don't understand how GPs get paid; GPs in training actually take a significant pay cut after leaving the hospital system," she said.
Dr Kearney has settled in Wallaroo with her family and said besides addressing burnout, better maternity benefits could be another incentive, especially when 65 per cent of medical graduates were female and might be considering starting a family.
"It would [also] be nice to see the government fund maternity leave for GPs, especially GPs in training, because at present there's no maternity leave for GPs in training."
