A Lake Cargelligo General Practitioner service has been added to the list of Remote Vocational Training Schemes locations, where doctors completing their GP training will be provided with wage support to live and work in Lake Cargelligo. 

The Remote Vocational Training Scheme is well established in rural NSW, hoping to counter the dire shortfall of GPs available to locals across the Western Plains and beyond. 

Lachlan Shire Council Mayor John Medcalf OAM said that the town is lucky to have a doctor committed enough to take on students.



“To do this, to look after medical students and help train them…I think it’s absolutely fantastic and we need a lot more of that,” Mr Medcalf said. 

Like many local shires, a shortage of health professionals isn’t new for the Lachlan Shire, where locum doctor positions have been unable to be filled over holiday periods, leaving locals to travel. 

On top of the existing crisis, he worries that no one will be there to replace the few established doctors they do have when they retire. 

Mr Medcalf said that while the program will have obvious benefits, the issue lies in retaining the newly trained GPs after they have completed their training. 

“Getting people to come out and stay in these communities is always a bit of a challenge,” Mr Medcalf said. 

In the 2021 Inquiry into the rural and regional health workforce, the Central NSW Joint Organisation (CNSWJO) suggested that despite health infrastructure and workforce not being a responsibility of local government under the national funding framework, it was consistently something they had to sink their own budget into. 

“CNSWJO members increasingly find themselves providing health infrastructure and incentives to attract and retain health workforce,” CNSWJO CEO Jennifer Bennet wrote in a submission to the enquiry. 

Currently, the Lachlan Shire is investing in their healthcare professionals through making the town more ‘liveable’.

“We are looking at developing some better housing for those sort of people coming in to try and alleviate that,” Mr Medcalf said. 

Federal Regional Health Minister Dr David Gillespie said that without the support of junior doctors to report rurally within the scheme, it is likely that they would stay in cities to undertake their training, given research showing a decline in the attractiveness of rural GP work for new medical graduates. 

“The scheme focuses on remote GP training in small and isolated communities to help improve the recruitment pipeline for a high quality traditional primary care workforce,” Dr Gillespie said. 

The pilot scheme in Lake Cargelligo will provide a total of $465,00 in income support over the course of each doctor’s training to make Lake Cargelligo a more appealing place for young doctors to begin their career.