Rural Health West provides grants to support health professionals working across rural Western Australia.
These grants aim to assist you to pursue ongoing professional development, settle in to your new role, cover the costs of providing locum services or providing financial support to retain health professionals in difficult to staff locations.
We also provide financial support to partners of health professionals and students enrolled in health disciplines. For information on these grants, please visit the respective pages on our website.
Incentive programs
New WIP Rural Advanced Skills payments
The new WIP – Rural Advanced Skills payment provides an annual financial incentive to improve access to quality medical services in rural Australia by rewarding general practitioner’s own investment in advanced skills and specialist qualifications.
If you are a doctor providing primary care services and advanced skills services in locations classified as Modified Monash MM3 to MM7 you may be eligible for the new WIP Rural Advanced Skills payment. Incentives of up to $21,000 per calendar year may be payable to GPs or rural generalists, with the amount of incentive payment varying by remoteness and volume of services delivered.
Doctors with extra qualifications – including in obstetrics, anaesthetics, surgery, mental health and First Nations health – may be eligible for an additional $4,000 to $10,500 per year, depending on location and level of services provided. Another payment stream will also offer $4,000 to $10,500 per year to doctors offering emergency care and emergency after hours services in eligible locations.
Annual payments will start being rolled out to successful applicants from 1 January 2024, for services delivered during 2023, 2024 and 2025.
To check your eligibility, the level of payments and application process, see the Rural Advanced Skills section of the WIP website HERE. Information available includes a fact sheet, program guidelines, FAQs and a link to the online application form and contact details for each Rural Workforce Agency that assesses applications.
Workforce Incentive Program – Doctor Stream
The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s Workforce Incentive Program provides additional financial support to doctors working in rural locations. You can receive up to $60,000 per year, depending on how long you have been working in a rural location and how many services you provide in eligible locations.
There are two aspects to the program
- Central Payment System – this is paid directly to doctors working in rural locations based in eligible MBS billing records.
- Flexible Payment System – is an additional payment available for doctors who may be providing eligible non-MBS services or undertaking general practice training
In Western Australia, Rural Health West administers the WIP-DS FPS. You can read further information, including eligibility and how to claim top-up payments here.
WIP Doctor Stream incentives for non-vocationally registered doctors not on approved training programs will be 80% of the value available to vocationally registered GPs..
As of 1 January 2024, a doctor’s vocational registration status will have implications for the amount of WIP – Doctor Stream incentive that may be payable. The payment that non-vocationally registered doctors who are not on an approved training pathway will receive, will be 80% of the value of WIP – Doctor Stream payments. If you are a doctor in these circumstances, who is working in primary care (MM3-7), the value of payments will range between $3,600 and $48,000, depending on a doctor’s activity levels, location and duration of active services within the program.
Non-vocationally registered doctors not on an approved training pathway are encouraged to consider exploring the approved training pathways on offer from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine or the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Enrolling in an approved training pathway as soon as possible is encouraged. Approved training pathways on offer from GP Colleges include the Australian General Practice Training Program, the Rural Generalist Training Scheme and Remote Vocational Training Scheme, among others.
Non-vocationally registered doctors engaged in an approved training pathway do not need to do anything.
A fact sheet about the changes is available in the Doctors Stream section of the WIP website at: www.health.gov.au/our-work/workforce-incentive-program.
Professional development grants
Health Workforce Scholarship Program
The Health Workforce Scholarship Program provides financial assistance to health professionals in rural Western Australian to enhance their clinical skills and expertise. The HWSP is an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.
The HWSP is available to health professionals providing primary care services in MM3-7 locations. The types of funding are available under the HWSP:
- Scholarships: A payment up to $10,000 per year, for up to two years, toward the cost of completing a postgraduate course leading to a postgraduate qualification
- Bursaries: A payment up to $10,000 (maximum of $10,000 in total in one year) for professional development and upskilling course fees and associated accommodation and travel-related expenses
Applications for the next round of funding through the Health Workforce Scholarship Program will open in early 2024.
Visit our Health Workforce Scholarship Program page for further information and guidelines on eligibility.
Relocation assistance
Going rural? We can help with the cost!
Health professionals relocating to rural Western Australia for work may be able to access a relocation grant. Grants are available for medical practitioners, nurses, midwives, dentists and allied health professionals working in a primary health role. This grant can be used for flights, fuel, removalists and accommodation expenses along the way.
Grants are allocated depending on the remoteness of your new job and availability of funding.
You are eligible for a grant if you:
- commit to a minimum of 12 month contract in your location;
- work a minimum of 0.4 FTE; and
- deliver a primary health care service.
For further information, contact our recruitment team.
Medical practitioners
Nurse, Midwives, Dentists and Allied Health professionals
Support for locums
Travel support for locums
Rural Health West can provide grants to assist with the cost of travel to fulfil a locum assignment. Travel grants are available for health professionals completing locum assignments in primary healthcare settings.
Travel support is allocated subject to funding availability and is based on the remoteness of the locum assignment.
For further information, contact our recruitment team.
Medical practitioners
Nurse, Midwives, Dentists and Allied Health professionals
Other funding support not administered by Rural Health West
Rural Procedural Grants program
The Rural Procedural Grants Program (the Program) provides a grant of $2,000 per day to general practitioners who are practising unsupervised procedural and emergency medicine in rural and remote areas to assist them in maintaining or updating their skills.
The Program is administered by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). General practitioners are required to contact their relevant college to register. General practitioners do not have to be a member of the colleges to receive the grant.
Where possible, Rural Health West education activities are approved for the Program.
Apply with RACGP
Apply with ACRRM
To check your eligibility and view all current information please read the Rural Procedural Grants Program: Program Guidelines.
