Are GP registrars happier on a salary or fee-for-service?
Dr Erica Musgrove says the security of the single-employer model comes with a trade-off.
When GP registrar Dr Erica Musgrove heard her State Government was going to try offering hospital salaries to doctors training in general practice, she jumped at the chance.
“As a young woman hoping to start a family in the next couple of years, I thought it would be good if I could access some paid parental leave rather than having, as a trainee, no entitlements at all.”
GP registrars can have lower incomes than interns when they first move into general practice, with some doctors facing a pay cut of $15,000 a year or more compared with their previous hospital salary.
But it is also the loss of leave entitlements that can drive junior doctors away from the specialty.
