A flexible work life and caring for a breadth of patients and families is what attracted GP-in-training Dr Chris Dickie to general practice.
"It's a fantastic speciality, I love my job," he said.
"You get to see patients of all ages, you get to see patients with different medical problems, social problems."
Coming up with ideas to provide personalised primary care has helped maintain his passion for general practice, Dr Dickie said.
But leaving Canberra Hospital, where he worked for a number of years, to become a general practitioner meant sacrificing income and benefits.
He said it was a "massive barrier" for doctors who wanted to change streams after climbing up pay scales in the public system.
"If I didn't really love the idea of doing general practice, taking a 40 per cent pay cut isn't something many people are going to do," Dr Dickie said.
Losses also included paid study leave and weeks of long service leave he had racked up for about six years.
"You also lose access to things like parental leave and lots of other supports that come from working in a large public system versus working for a small business," Dr Dickie said.
To make up for the financial difference, he said he was doing clinical work across the border in Bungendore while training at the ANU Medical School.
"To pay my mortgage, I had to make sure I could have enough money," Dr Dickie said.
He said government support for GPs in training would go a long way in lightening the load of costly exams and lost income for doctors changing specialities.
Trainees have it 'far worse' in Canberra
After studying and working in the UK, Dr Dickie undertook a fellowship with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to fulfill his goal of working in Canberra and in rural areas in need.
Demanding support for future GPs like Dr Dickie, the peak body has called on the next ACT government to spend money on attracting GPs like other states had done.
Victorian and Queensland governments had introduced incentive payments of $40,000 per person to support GPs in training.
Dr Rebekah Hoffman, the RACGP's NSW/ ACT chair, said GPs tended to practice where they trained and given a growing population, the need to invest in future GPs was very urgent in the ACT.
"When a doctor starts GP training, they lose entitlements earned working in hospital and many face a pay cut. This makes it harder to attract doctors to train as GPs, and it's far worse in an expensive city like Canberra," she said.
With about 90 GPs per 100,000 people, Canberra had fewer GPs per person than other similar metropolitan areas which had more than 115, data from the national health department data showed.
Dr Hoffman said government-funded incentives worked and were the fastest way to address the "drastic" shortage.
"More young doctors are choosing to train as GPs in 2025 ... the best way for the ACT to get the GPs it needs for the future is for them to train here. A $40,000 incentive is an investment in the ACT's health," he said.
