The College has published its position statement on Single Employer Models in remote and rural health services.  This asserts ACRRM’s commitment to progressing SEMs as an important strategy to building a strong Rural Generalist (RG) workforce.

ACRRM is committed to advancing appropriately designed SEMs and contributing to their development and delivery including for registrars and Fellowed RGs.

The College supports SEMs being provided as part of a range of employment options as befitting the diversity of RG training and practice contexts and the training and career journeys that RGs pursue.  Pay and conditions for RGs should fairly reward their skills and services and incentivise the growth of this critical workforce. RGs provide broad scope services to meet the needs of people without the ease of access to specialised services available in cities. Attaining this skillset involves training across multiple workplaces and a longer and more complex training journey than that requisite for generic General Practice Fellowship.

The SEM approach addresses key barriers to attaining this scope, most notably the inability to accumulate job entitlements across the training journey. SEMs can also have broader benefits such as streamlining RG training and nurturing better integrated cross-services patient care.

To be effective, SEM models must:

  • Include strong cooperation between participating doctors, practices, and health services in design and delivery
  • Be purpose fit to the diverse contexts in which RG training and practice occur
  • Ensure the training employment conditions coincide with suitably remunerated and incentivised RG careers beyond Fellowship
  • Be compatible with RG training and practice standards and requirements and involve ACRRM in design and roll out as arbiter of professional standards for RG training and practice
  • SEMs should be progressed where they can contribute positively to strong, sustainable remote and rural health services.
    Positive employment conditions for RGs should coincide with appropriate remuneration and conditions for all members of remote and rural healthcare teams and healthcare providers.