TOWNS across the Border region have been given a greater opportunity to attract GPs under a changed incentive program.
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Communities set to benefit under the program include Benalla, Corowa, Rutherglen, Yarrawonga-Mulwala and Beechworth.
The idea behind the change is to get rid of the system that encourages doctors to stay in large regional cities such as Townsville and Cairns.
Other towns to benefit are Chiltern, Culcairn, Finley, Holbrook, Howlong, Corryong, Mount Beauty-Tawonga South and Tumbarumba.
The maximum incentive to work in a town of less than 5000 in regional Australia will increase from $18,000 to $23,000.
The changes are coming under a revamped GP Rural Incentives Program, which Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash described as much fairer.
Towns will fall under particular categories dependent on how far these lie from a larger centre such as Albury-Wodonga.
The previous system, introduced in 2010, provided $50 million a year for doctors to live in 14 larger regional cities.
Senator Nash said the system created incentives for doctors to remain in well-serviced cities that had little trouble attracting doctors.
“The new GPRIP system will deliver a fairer system for smaller towns; redirecting money to attract more doctors to smaller towns that have genuine difficulty attracting and retaining doctors,” she said.
“It makes more sense to use that money to attract doctors to where the greatest shortages are — small rural and remote communities, not big regional cities.”
The changes have come about under what the government calls its Modified Monash Model to classify rural and regional towns and cities.
The new incentive payment will not be available to doctors working in the 14 large regional cities with a population of more than 50,000.
Towns in the Border region largely fall into one of two categories.
The highest incentive payments, which will increase from $47,000 a year to $60,000, are for remote towns such as Katherine in the Northern Territory, Port Hedland in Western Australia and Queenstown in Tasmania.
Senator Nash said the changes were a way to address the struggle for small rural towns to attract enough doctors.
Doctors in remote areas will receive payments after waiting for a year.
But they will need to stay longer in a regional area before they get the incentive — for two years, compared with the current requirement of six months.
The changes come into effect on July 1.