We all knew first-year GP registrars were worse off than hospital-based trainees – now we know how much by.
Just one in four GP registrars earn more money now than they did in their final year of hospital training, according to results from this year’s national GP registrar survey.
The effect was strongest for GP term 1 and 2 registrars, around 70% of whom said they were now earning less than they did during prevocational training.
The only cohort where a majority of respondents said they were earning more than they were previously, were doctors in their first year of the Remote Vocational Training Scheme pathway.
Despite the financial woes, GP registrars were largely satisfied with their training – in fact, the average satisfaction level increased slightly on 2023 scores.
In monetary terms, first-year GP registrars reported a median income of between $40,000 and $50,000 per semester, while registrars in their second year reported earning between $50,000 and $60,000 per semester.
“Despite progressing in their careers, most registrars have seen their salary stall or even decrease,” General Practice Registrars Australia president Dr Chris Dickie said.
“This underscores the urgent need for the implementation of GPRA’s proposed National Employment Support Fund to provide financial stability for future GPs while they are in training.”
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GPRA is not alone in its call for better pay and conditions for GP registrars; RACGP GPs-in-Training council chair Dr Rebecca Loveridge said the college would be backing its call for more Commonwealth investment in GP training.
“Whilst one solution is that every state government offers incentive programs, a much simpler solution that’s not going to result in possibly unfair distribution for those more rural and remote areas is that there’s just a national increase to the base pay for GP registrars and a national approach to maintaining entitlements for parental leave and study leave,” she told The Medical Republic.
“Then there won’t be this argy-bargy between states where different areas of Australia are really missing out.”
While people are happy to pay lip service to the idea of improving access to GPs, she said, there was not as much enthusiasm when it came to actually doing the work of breaking down the barriers to enter GP training.
“GP trainees have done all of the same prep work to get to their training program as other specialists have – we all went to medical school, we all completed internship and residency,” Dr Loveridge said.
“But the reason that there’s a fork in the road when it comes to pay and entitlements is because we go from working in the hospital system to working in the community.
“The state governments fund hospital training, and so those hospital-based registrars are getting a higher base pay that increases year-on-year, and GP trainees are getting a lower base pay and losing access to their parental leave and study leave entitlements.”
AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said the organisation would be throwing its weight behind equal pay and incentives for GP registrars.
“Registrars are employees and deserve to have equitable conditions,” she told TMR.
“We need to do everything we can to attract more GPs to the profession, and asking these highly trained junior doctors who are keen to enter general practice to take a pay cut to do so really doesn’t make sense.”
In other training news, Queensland launched a new trial of the Single Employer Model.
Beginning in February, it will take on 60 new GP and rural generalist registrars across the state and will run for four years.
“While general practice is a Federal Government responsibility, the Queensland Government is stepping up to support the sustainability of primary care through integrated and shared workforce models to ensure the right care is provided by the right people in the right place, at the right time,” said state health minister Tim Nicholls.
“Over the span of this four-year trial, access to medical skills including obstetrics and anaesthetics will be improved in small rural communities across Queensland.”