Tiny town with just 619 people offers an $800,000 job – including paying ZERO rent on an ‘executive’ home – to one lucky Australian
- Small Wheatbelt town offering $800,000 for a new GP
- Quairading also offering rent-free, four bed house
- It’s the latest Wheatbelt town to struggle for a GP
A small town desperate to pin down a doctor has offered anyone willing to take the job an annual salary package of nearly $1million and a four-bedroom house, rent-free.
Quairading, in Western Australia‘s Wheatbelt region, is only a two-hour drive east of Perth but the country town has struggled for months to find a permanent general practitioner.
The desperate town’s council confirmed it would cover all running and staff costs for the practice for the right candidate, meaning the doctor could earn more than $800,000 in gross billings.
There are extra government incentives for staying in the job including up to $12,000 a year if they stay for more than two years and a $23,000 if they stay longer than five years.
The incentive is targeted at eligible doctors to find work in rural areas and the amount paid is linked to the how isolated and small the town the doctor practices in.
The Quairading Shire (pictured, Shire Hall), east of Perth, is offering a $800,000 salary and a four bedroom house rent-free in a desperate plea to hire a GP for the town of 619 residents
The rural town is one of many small towns in the Wheatbelt region struggling to find a GP with nearby Toodyay having to shut its medical office last year (pictured, Quairading)
The town only has 619 residents and is the latest in a long line of communities across Australia struggling to find a doctor.
Australia is in the grips of a national GP shortage, forcing some towns to shut medical centre doors.
A town northwest of Quairading, Toodyay, had to shut its doctor’s surgery in November last year because the town couldn’t find any GPs to keep it open.
‘The council will not stand by idle when the community has such a critical need,’ Quairading Shire President Peter Smith told The West.
‘If we don’t have a doctor, we won’t have a medical clinic, then we won’t have a hospital, we won’t have a chemist and so the demise will begin.’
The shire said it would post the job offer in West Australian medical publications next week before extending it to publications on the east coast if it failed to get any interest.
Only 14 per cent of Australian medical students seek out specialisation as a GP, and only 4.5 per cent of students are looking to work in a small town.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners WA Chair Dr Ramya Raman warned rural towns trying to attract doctors needed to address housing, schooling, childcare and work for a GP’s partner to entice potential candidates.
Dr Ramya Raman called on Australia to support rural doctors
‘Supporting junior doctors to have that opportunity to trial general practice as a career option (is important)’ she told the publication.
‘And in addition to that, fast tracking the entry for international doctors.
‘The other aspect of it is working very closely with the communities in trying to enhance the retention of these doctors.’
WA shadow health minister, Libby Mettam, called on the state government – led by Premier Mark McGowan – to provide incentives for doctors to practice in rural towns.
‘These concerns are backed up by the latest figures which indicate we have a below average number of GPs per population and the lowest rate in remote WA,’ Ms Mettam said.
‘This is a primary health concern which has implications for our hospital system when it is not addressed, as well as the economic development of our regions.’
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