Dr Alan Bradley
RACGP Presidential Candidate 2024
I’m a passionate General Practitioner and Medical Educator in Berwick, Victoria.
My love for teaching is central to my professional life. I am a supervisor to registrars at our clinic, I serve as a tutor for first-year medical students at Melbourne University, and I teach GP registrars as a medical educator for the RACGP.
What I hear from my students makes me worried for our profession.
Barely any of my medical students are considering General Practice as a career - even below the 13% found in the Health of the Nation report, and far fewer than Australia needs.
Our GP registrars are struggling too. Many are forced to pick up extra shifts at the hospitals to make up for the dramatic drop of income. They lose all their accumulated sick leave / long service leave / parental leave, as well as their CPD allowance and conference leave.
We need to do better at standing up for ourselves.
Changing the College is the best way to do that.
“GP Registrars will soon be earning less than Graduate Nurses”
GP Registrars will be earning less than Graduate Nurses in 2027.
GP practices are rationing Shingrix doses, while pharmacies are getting an extra $3billion in funding this year.
Overseas doctors are being fast-tracked to work here as GPs, without any college approval, while overseas construction workers are excluded from fast-tracked visas by the same government.
Why do GPs always lose?
The government respects the Nursing Federation, the Pharmaceutical Guild, and the CFMEU.
They need to start respecting us too.
We can make them.
The RACGP needs to start acting more like a union.
Restore respect to our GP profession
Full rebate restoration after a decade of cuts
Ensure no doctor takes a pay cut to train as a GP
Parity in remuneration between GP and other specialties
Adequate funding to teach registrars and medical students
A full-throated rejection of non-doctors doing the job of GPs
I love being a GP. But right now, we're on the brink.
The next two years will decide if General Practice in Australia thrives or falls.
With 30 more years ahead of me as a GP, I can't afford to see our profession decline.
Together, we have the power to change the direction we're headed in.
If you want a president that is going to bring some fight to the role, and stand up for our profession and our patients, send a message to the college and Vote 1 for Dr Alan Bradley.