Single employer model to expand to Hunter New England to attract more doctors, under NSW government and federal scheme

The "single employer model" will be bolstered with two new trials.

The first will cover the Far West, Illawarra Shoalhaven, Murrumbidgee, Southern and Western local health districts.

Hunter New England, Mid North Coast and Northern NSW local health districts will follow in the second trial.

NSW Regional Health Minister Ryan Park said the model's expansion would "help attract more junior doctors to become rural generalists".

This means GPs who also work in public hospitals.

Mr Park said the next steps for the expansion will include "a recruitment process for new trainees".

The crippling effects of the GP shortage have been highlighted in the Hunter recently.

Cessnock, Muswellbrook, Singleton, Murrurundi, Merriwa, Scone and Denman were among 60 areas identified in NSW last year as being at risk of critical doctor shortages.

Weston Medical Centre's Dr Yasas Samarasinghe said doctors need "inherent knowledge about the health needs of an area".

"It's really good if doctors originate from these areas. Someone from the Hunter would understand the healthcare needs and lifestyle of the people here more than someone from Sydney or interstate," he said.

Nonetheless, he said doctors need a "wide range of training and exposure" for general practice.

"Health conditions can differ from one demographic area to another. If you restrict your training to one area, you may have a gap in the knowledge required to serve any community you go to," he said.

The model provides training for GPs to gain skills to address the needs of particular communities. It's known as the "Murrumbidgee model", as it presently only applies to that town.

It enables young doctors to remain as employees of NSW Health during their training and keep entitlements gained in the hospital system, such as paid holidays and maternity leave.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who approved the model's expansion in NSW, said it would make "training and working in rural general practice a more attractive option for young doctors".

"Importantly it will make it easier for people in regional NSW to see a doctor close to home."

Peta Rutherford, CEO of Rural Doctors Association of Australia, expected the model would be in "big demand" among trainee doctors.

"There's certainly an appetite in rural general practice and particularly towns where the practices provide the medical workforce to the hospitals," she said.

Dr Ian Cameron, a former chief executive for the NSW Rural Doctors Network, said the model was a "useful way" of increasing the number of doctors who will "stay as rural GPs".

Dr Cameron, a retired GP based in Newcastle, said the shortage of doctors in the bush had been "getting worse over the last 10 years or so".

"Going back many years, it was always difficult in the more remote places. That gradually crept east and now there are shortages even in city areas.

"That's due to the changing nature of general practice. Some of it's due to a shortage of young doctors who are willing to commit to rural or remote practice over a period of time."

He said some towns do "very well based largely on the personalities and quality of training and support they're able to give young doctors".

"For towns that aren't as able, they're still in desperate need. There will be other things needed to get doctors to stay in those towns."

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