Country doctors enticed with free house, car and $500,000 salary

A shortage of GPs is forcing recruitment companies to get creative, as regional and remote residents go without an adequate number of doctors.

Central-northern Queensland town Julia Creek, located more than 600 kilometres west of Townsville, is on the hunt for a GP and there's a base salary of $400,000 to $514,000 and rent-free accommodation on offer.

This is significantly higher than the average rural/remote annual salary of $204,106, according to data from the General Practice Registrars Australia.

Previous doctors in the town have been called on to vouch for their love of the area.

But, Julia Creek is far from the only country town offering up big money, free accommodation and sometimes even a car to entice GPs to consider a move to the country.

If you're keen to move to Lightning Ridge in western NSW there's a GP job on offer with a $550,00 package including a house and car.

In Tasmania, there's a spot for a GP in Queenstown with a $400,000 package including a house and car.

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In Orbost, Victoria there's a GP position with a salary of $350,000-$450,000 plus subsidised rent on offer; there's also a GP job in Bourke, NSW with a $500,000 salary on offer.

Associate Professor Michael Clements, who is rural chair for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said incentives for GPs to go bush needed to be far more than just monetary.

The Julia Creek job might sound highly paid to some people, but he said it works out to a low hourly rate.

"That requires the rural doctor to be on call 24 hours a day, seven-days-a-week for three to four weeks of every month. The only way they'll get a break from that time is if Queensland Health find them a locum to backfill them," he said.

"Given that the community expects them to be available at their beck and call, it actually turns out to be a very small hourly rate.

DXC Medical Recruitment currently has 850 jobs ads for doctors across regional Australia, with salaries up to $3500 a day or $750,000 a year, but owner Darren Compton said he's struggling to fill the positions.

"Why would you go to Broken Hill when you can get the same [salary] in Canberra or Bondi," he said.

There is a requirement for international doctors to train or work in regional areas, but Mr Compton said there's far too much bureaucracy to get approved.

He accused the country's governing bodies - the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) - for a lack of consistency on rules for overseas doctors.

"They need to relax some of the restrictions for international medical graduates," Mr Compton said.

The application fee for an overseas doctor to work in Australia has jumped from $2000 to $8000, which is significantly higher than the $200 fee for New Zealand.

Recent claims of GPs ripping off Medicare to the tune of $8 billion have further dampened the appeal of Australia for overseas doctors, Mr Compton said.

GPs must be provided with better incentives to work in regional areas, and processes to get international doctors there must be sped up, Assoc Prof Clements said.

Incentives should be more than salary and Medicare rebates, he said. They could include training, housing, child care or schooling support, and job help for the GP's partner or spouse.

More than 50 per cent of Australia's rural GP workforce might have obtained their first degree overseas, but getting new international doctors in the country is a challenge.

"It is hard, it is long and it is expensive and they're not getting enough support," Assoc Prof Clements said of foreign doctors.

"The steps are there to protect patient safety, we certainly support the hurdles that are in place, but we can speed them up and we can help them pass it."

International doctors can apply through the ACRRM and RACGP to work in Australia, but each college has its own set of criteria for GPs.

The RACGP said both colleges take into account the GP's training and experience, the supports available in the practice (such as supervision and other doctors) and the supports available around the practice (such as a local hospital or allied health resources) when determining whether a doctor would be safe to work in a specific location.