The Australian government understands the importance of doctors and others involved in the field of healthcare around the country. The overall health and well being of the population depends upon the services provided by these businesses and GPs. The government has many grants in place for health professionals running small business such as General Practitioners (GPs) to help them improve and expand their services so that more and more citizens can avail them. In this article, we shall talk about popular government schemes that are providing financial assistance to health professionals and hospitals for improvement and expansion of their services.
Rural Procedural Grants Program
Under this program, financial assistance is provided to medical practitioners in the fields of emergency and procedural medicines. Grants are given to GPs operating in eligible locations so as to encourage them to continue and to upgrade their healthcare services. RPGP is an ongoing program and applications for grants can be made at any time. The amount of grants is as follows.
- $2,000 per day for up to 3 days for GPs that are hospital based and providing emergency medicine
- $2,000 per day for up to 10 days for procedural GPs
Eligibility criteria
- GPs must be working in a rural or remote area
- He or she must be providing medicines in an emergency facility
- Applicant should be a practitioner in fields of surgery, anaesthetics, and obstetrics
- Locums and GP registrars are also eligible
- Your practice should be in eligible locations and willing to upgrade healthcare services
WIP- Doctor Stream
Workforce Incentive Program Doctor Stream is a grants program that provides financial incentives to doctors to encourage them to practice in remote and rural areas of Australia. It is an ongoing program under which a General Practitioner (GP) can apply for incentives and rebates. The government hopes to encourage more and more doctors to take up careers in remote and rural areas of Australia by providing financial incentives under WIP.
- Doctors providing services under Medicare receive payments through CPS
- Doctors providing services to patients not covered under Medicare receive payments through FPS
Eligibility criteria:
- The GP must be providing minimum healthcare services in eligible locations
- He or she must provide services for a certain length of time
- GP must have an eligible ID as a service provider under Medicare
Practice Incentives Program (PIP)
PIP is a program specifically designed for medical practitioners. Under this program, financial incentives are given to eligible doctors so that they can improve their healthcare services and also enhance their capacity to provide services to more number of patients. PIP is an ongoing program and eligible GPs can apply for financial assistance and incentives. Some of the activities for which payments are given to GPs under PIP are eHealth, after hours care, service in rural locations, and improvement in procedural activities and quality of treatment.
Eligibility criteria
- You should be operating as a GP
- You must be registered or accredited with RACGP
- You must have insurance cover for public liability
- You must have insurance cover against public indemnity
Above mentioned grants are only some of the many incentives that the Australian State and Federal Governments are providing to support health professionals to improve and expand their services. To know more about similar grants and their eligibility criteria, please speak to one of our advisors at the number mentioned below.
