Share your experiences and ideas
General practice workforce shortages combined with an increasing demand for medical services as the population grows, has prompted the Fairfield City Health Alliance (FCHA) to investigate options to ensure local residents have continued access to quality healthcare.
The FCHA is a partnership between South Western Sydney PHN (SWSPHN), South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD), Fairfield City Council and community, which supports a healthier population through a variety of projects which target areas of need.
The FCHA Options Paper is investigating the current primary care workforce landscape in Fairfield Local Government Area (LGA) and will present actionable recommendations to the council as to how to invest in and support general practices.
Why focus on Fairfield LGA?
Fairfield LGA’s community faces unique challenges, including a population which:
- is expected to grow by about 37,000 residents from almost 211,000 in 2021 to almost 248,000 by 2041
- is highly socio-economically disadvantaged
- is culturally and linguistically diverse, with 56 per cent of residents born overseas and 70 per cent speaking a language other than English at home. This diversity creates barriers to accessing healthcare due to low health literacy, limited knowledge of the Australian healthcare system and financial constraints
- has resultant elevated rates of poor health and chronic disease, including higher rates of arthritis, diabetes and heart and kidney disease compared to the greater Sydney area
In addition, many GP registrars do not speak another language putting them at a disadvantage when consulting with a multicultural population, and creating both language and cultural barriers to providing the most effective care.
Fairfield LGA’s general practices also face challenges, including:
- workforce shortages – 11 general practices have closed since 2023
- an ageing GP workforce – the median age of GPs in Fairfield LGA is 59 years
- large number of solo GP practices (one GP) – 64.5 per cent
- poor staff retention – due to high workloads and poor financial incentives
- poor GP training capacity a large percentage of practices are non-accredited (cannot supervise GPs in training); 50.5 per cent compared to 16.2 per cent nationally
- only 6 per cent of the city’s 108 practices have a GP registrar compared with 19 per cent across the wider South Western Sydney region
The drop in GP numbers is expected to reduce access to general practice, potentially overburdening the remaining GPs and hospital system and decreasing employment opportunities for practice nurses and allied health.
What are the priorities for Fairfield LGA?
The FCHA Options Paper project follows feedback gathered through SWSPHN’s Local Health Forums in March/April last year which focused on ‘Supporting the primary care workforce’, attracted more than 80 participants from across South Western Sydney and elicited more than 1,000 responses to questions.
Community and general practice surveys on the same topic complemented the face-to-face forums and gave an additional 44 locals the opportunity to have their say.
The forums found increased funding and resources was the top priority for the wider region.
Primary care providers cited affordability, increasing wait times to see a health professional and low health literacy as the biggest challenges for patients. Community participants also raised affordability and wait times as barriers to visiting a GP, in addition to poor access to their preferred practice.
Other feedback included:
One survey respondent said: “Registrars prefer to work in private or mixed billing practices, usually located in inner city or city area”.
One forum participant said: “We can support health professionals by improving incentives to work in the region, also improving support for people to visit their doctor in a timely manner”.
How can you help improve access to primary care?
SWSPHN will be working closely with primary care providers including GPs and practice owners, local residents and community workers, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse and refugee communities, the hospital and the council as part of the investigation.
We are seeking a deeper understanding of the challenges impacting the primary care workforce in Fairfield LGA, including enablers and barriers to establishing new general practices, and improving succession planning in the region. We also want to know what makes it easier or harder to establish a new general practice and how we can better plan for the future.
Your experiences and ideas will be combined with quantitative data to develop a comprehensive overview of the issues affecting the primary care workforce in Fairfield LGA, and offer a path forward for the council to act upon.
Residents in the Fairfield LGA are invited to:
Take our community survey
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