Medical Training Review Panel 19th Report

Prevocational General Practice Placements Program

The Prevocational General Practice Placements Program (PGPPP) was ceased at
31 December 2014, as announced in the 2014-15 Federal Budget.

Queensland Country Relieving Doctors Program

The Queensland Country Relieving Doctors (QCRD) program provides a relieving resource for Queensland’s growing rural medical workforce of up to 200 rural generalists and general practitioners who are engaged (at least in part) in public service. It draws upon a pool of junior medical staff, employed within the state’s major public hospitals, to undertake rural term placements. The relieving role of these junior doctors is limited to that of a junior doctor without vocational qualification and is subject to supervision.

The 3GA exemptions are necessary for junior doctors relieving state-employed rural medical colleagues granted entitlement to practice privately and/or where public rural medical services are subject to an s19(2) exemption program. The 3GA component of the QCRD program enables junior relieving doctors to provide services that attract Medicare benefits.

The program is subject to reform commencing with a change of organisation/governance from 2011. A safety focus for patients and junior doctors alike is driving progressive operational transformation. Further client supported major transformation will gain standardised, reliable supervision and formal prevocational education/training for rural doctors.

Now complemented by a pool of senior vocationally qualified relieving doctors, the QCRD program remains a crucially large contributor to the maintenance and growth of Queensland’s senior rural medical workforce. In rural placements, its junior doctors provide affordable, reliable support of senior medical teams for periods of senior doctors’ leave or time free from duty, which in turn increasingly afford the junior doctors with safe, productive prevocational rural experience and training.