00:00The population of healthcare workers, including GPs, tend to be ageing and we're concerned
00:08that this will provide a little bit of an issue in terms of meeting our community's
00:12needs in the future, especially because we know we need more GPs in the future to help
00:17serve our populations which are themselves ageing and also suffering from more chronic
00:21diseases.
00:23So we know that just over 8% of GPs are going to be over the age of 70 and we need to find
00:29ways to support this population of GPs to continue to serve their communities in the
00:34most safe and most beneficial way possible.
00:37I think we might feel the effects of the ageing population of GPs most acutely in our rural
00:43facilities.
00:45We find in our rural communities GPs often really are embedded and are so important in
00:50their communities that they continue to work, especially when there's concerns that there's
00:54not another GP coming along who might be able to help share the burden and help care for
00:58the communities as well.
01:00And look, in the last year we've actually seen an uplift in the number of junior doctors
01:03interested in training as a GP, which is really heartening.
01:07We've filled an extra 20% of places for next year, but what we will be asking the Federal
01:12Government coming into the election next year, or actually this year, 2025, is that there
01:17is extra support for growing a GP population and support for encouraging junior doctors
01:23to choose this career.
Comments