A remote coastal town is so desperate for a doctor that it is willing to offer a general practitioner up to $450,000 a year, free rent and a 4×4 vehicle.
Livingston Medical announces the recruitment of a doctor who will be based in Bremer Bay, 500 kilometers south-east of Perth, to work in two of its clinics.
The GP would collect an incredible 70 per cent of the turnover from practices in Bremer Bay and nearby Jerramungup.
Currently, each of the clinics has access to only one temporary doctor, and the closest permanent doctor is located almost 200 kilometers away in Albany.
Livingston Medical CEO Rachel Livingston said the practice is looking for “the Swiss army knife of doctors.”
A clinic in Bremer Bay (pictured), a small coastal town in Western Australia, is offering a new doctor up to $450,000, plus free accommodation and a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Bremer Bay residents (marked on map, right) currently travel 200km to see a GP in Albany.
“Being the only doctor in town has its challenges, so we need someone of high caliber,” he said. Perth now on Tuesday.
“You need someone who can do general medicine and emergency surgery, as well as things like mental health, obstetrics and anesthesia.”
The position is worth between $300,000 and $450,000 a year and the GP will receive a host of unusual benefits, including free accommodation in a five-bedroom house and a 4×4.
Livingston added that the work is also extremely rewarding because “you can see that you are making a real difference.”
“You become very embedded in the community and end up caring passionately about people, who in a way become your family,” he said.
Access to healthcare in rural Australia has become a major problem and the Royal Flying Doctor Service found that Australians living in very remote areas are more than twice as likely to die from preventable causes.
A shocking map published by the rescue service in March showed a serious lack of GPs, nursing and mental health and dental clinics outside the country’s metropolitan areas.
Between 2020 and 2021, $6.55 billion more was spent on healthcare in the city compared to services in the countryside, averaging $848.02 per person.
Lack of funding means people living in the most remote areas of Australia are likely to die 14.3 years earlier than those living in the city.
Diabetes was the second leading cause of death in very remote Australian communities, while it is only the seventh in major metropolitan areas.
The flying doctor 2023 All the best to the Bush report It found that three in ten Australians living outside major cities are unable to access healthcare due to a lack of physical clinics, affordability and suitability.
Between 2022 and 2023, Flying Doctor, a charity not run by the Australian government, flew to help 36,937 Australians, equivalent to approximately four Australians per hour.
A shocking map (pictured) showed a serious lack of GPs, nursing and mental health and dental clinics outside the country’s metropolitan and regional areas.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service found that 32,359 Australians in 2023 do not have adequate access to a GP
The successful applicant in Bremer Bay will become the shire’s only general practitioner, actively reducing the number of Australians unable to access a GP from 32,359.
To be eligible for the position, the applicant must have a current registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, rHigh experience or willingness to train and develop as a Rural Generalist and asStrong commitment to providing high quality patient care.
As for the rest of remote Australia, Flying Doctor remains a strong advocate for greater funding and planning for primary health care in rural communities.