Community
30 January, 2026
Drs needed in rural areas
CAMPERDOWN Clinic’s Dr Tim Noone is encouraging those with an interest in helping others and medicine to pursue rural medicine as a career.
Rural areas across Australia – including Camperdown – are dealing with a shortage of general practitioners (GPs) in clinics.
Dr Noone said the low GP numbers was partially due to a lack of interest in the rural medicine field.
“We’re seeing less and less graduates wanting to do general practice as their specialty, and it’s in general practices everywhere,” he said.
“It could be for financial issues – if you work in a hospital in a specialty, you get sick leave and annual leave whereas if you work as a GP in a clinic you’re contracted to the clinic you work at.
“Most people who do general practice tend to want to live in bigger cities where they can train in medicine.
“One of the challenges – and it’s something the universities are getting very good at – is getting medical students to spend a lot of time in rural communities.
“If you’re from a rural area and you get into medicine, you’re more likely to end up a rural doctor.”
The University Clinical Aptitude Test for Australia and New Zealand (UCAT ANZ) also notes low doctor-to-population rations in rural areas.
Around 20 per cent of rural Australians don’t have access to GP services, while 60 per cent of the rural population don’t have access to specialists in their area.
Dr Noone said he enjoys practicing rural medicine, saying there are many unique jobs metropolitan GPs may never experience.
“There might be 10 people who manage someone’s medical complaints in the city, but in a rural area it’s you, a few specialists and a couple of support staff,” he said.
“I did my training in a bigger city – I started in Brisbane and travelled around to a lot of regional centres.
“I worked in larger hospitals, around the size of Warrnambool’s hospital, and I noticed I liked it more and more the smaller the hospital got.
“My family is from the area – my grandparents were still living in Derrinallum at the time, so I moved to be closer to them.
“I thought I’d be here for a year or two and then work out where I wanted to work, but I became attached and found a place I like.”
Research from Rural and Remote Health indicates student doctors who grow up in regional areas are more likely to remain in those areas, with Dr Noone saying many of the doctors practicing in Camperdown fell in love with the area.
Dr Noone said another key issue for GPs was the lack of resources in rural areas, where important medical scans and procedures could require an hour or more of travel.
“In Camperdown, we’re quite lucky as our biggest centre is an hour away,” he said.
“Geographic isolation becomes a big issue, and it becomes a logistical challenge.
“The nice thing is technology bridges some of those gaps – these days, you might be able to see a specialist through telehealth.
“There are still some things you need to travel for, such as surgeries, special scans requiring specialised equipment and medication which may require specialists only found in some places.”
Anyone seeking to become a rural GP will begin their post-medical school career in hospital medicine for around a year before choosing their specialty.
Dr Noone said there were special programs available for those wanting to work rurally.
“There are two training programs, the College of General Practitioners and the College of Rural and Remote Medicine, which will train doctors to be general practitioners and also equip them with some of the specialty skills needed to work in rural medicine,” he said.
“In rural areas, you might be the general practitioner and also do deliveries in the maternity suite or help give anaesthetic during procedures or even running your own emergency department.
“The training is to become a good general practitioner, but also to get those extra skills because we don’t always have some of those specialist rurally.
“Some of those things can be done safely and effectively by well-trained GPs – some people elect to do extra training to gain skills to better serve their community.”
Dr Noone encouraged anyone keen on making a difference in their community or interested in medicine to reach out to their local clinics to learn what general practice is like.
“GPs love talking about what they do and are always happy to give advice to people – reach out and see what’s available,” he said.
“When you are young and from a rural area, you don’t think medicine is for you because of those issues accessing higher education, but there’s all sorts of fantastic programs to get young people from rural areas into medical training.
“There are scholarships, bonded places and all sorts of things for young people.”
To learn more about UCAT ANZ and the registration process, visit ucat.edu.au.
Students planning to sit the test can register via https://www.ucat.edu.au/register before the registration deadline on May 15, 2026.
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