South Western Sydney PHN is a not-for-profit health organisation dedicated to improving access to quality local healthcare for the whole community. We support GPs, practice nurses and other primary health providers to deliver the best possible care.

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Workforce

Recruiting a GP

South Western Sydney PHN provides a free advertising service for health professionals in our area. GP vacancies are advertised on our website and are then promoted to health professionals who enquire about vacant positions. If you wish to advertise your GP vacancy on our website, please contact your Practice Support Officer, or click here.

Employing an overseas trained doctor

If your practice is having difficulty recruiting a GP to a vacant position there are two government programs available which allow practices to employ an Overseas Trained Doctor (OTD):

  • Area of Need Program (AON) enables practices to employ overseas trained doctors in locations of NSW that have limited access to medical services. Practices must demonstrate that they have been unable to recruit either an Australian trained medical practitioner or international medical graduate (IMG) to the vacancy position. Once AON status is approved, the practice can extend their recruitment process to include IMGs not currently registered with the Medical Board of Australia. For more information on the application process please contact your Practice Support Officer, or click here.
  • The District of Workforce Shortage scheme refers to a geographical area that has less access to medical services than the national average, based on Medicare billing statistics. The DWS scheme enables practices to employ overseas trained doctors or foreign graduates of accredited medical schools who have general registration with the Medical Board of Australia and are subject to the 10 year moratorium. For more information click here.

GP Grants 

There are several grants available to GPs to encourage rural medical practice uptake.

General Practice Rural Incentive Program (GPRIP)

The GPRIP aims to promote careers in rural medicine as well as increase, recognise and retain medical practitioners in rural and remote Australia. To be eligible, medical practitioners must deliver primary care services and/or undertake GP registrar placements in regional and remote NSW classified as Modified Monash Model (MMM) 3-7. Payments are scaled according to MMM locations, length of practice and clinical workload of eligible services. For more information, including payment amounts click here.

Rural Procedural Grants Program

The Rural Procedural Grants Program is an initiative of the Australian Government. The program provides financial assistance for GPs in rural and remote areas to access relevant activities in order to assist them in maintaining or updating their skills.  This program has two components, to find out more information click here.

For more information about additional grants available to GPs click here.

Locums

RDN Locum Program

The NSW Rural Doctors Network (RDN) Locum Program provides and facilitates short term locum relief for permanent GPs located in rural NSW RA2-5 locations. It aims to improve the retention of rural GPs by providing cost-saving locum services. For more information click here.

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