The National Vision
A Rural Generalist is a medical practitioner who is trained to meet the specific current and future health care needs of Australian rural and remote communities, in a sustainable and cost-effective way by providing both comprehensive general practice and emergency care and required components of other medical specialist care in hospital and/or community setting as part of a rural healthcare team.
The NT Health and Rural Generalist Coordination Unit Vision and Mission
Vision
That all Territorians have access to medical services and doctors who are equipped to meet rural and remote community needs.
An increased number of rural generalists in the NT will enable the provision of decentralised, patient-centred and culturally safe care across multiple health services, resulting in fewer inefficiencies and, ultimately, better patient outcomes by reducing hospital admissions, reducing the use of locum services, and limiting the need for patient travel.
Mission
Our mission is to incorporate rural generalist medicine into the Northern Territory health system and its employment models through optimising the rural generalist scope of practice, embedding patient centred models of care that better accommodate the rural generalist model and ensuring appropriate governance structures are in place to support and promote the medical generalist workforce model in the NT.
The NT Health Rural Generalist Strategy 2022 - 2027 PDF (9.4 MB) provides a coordinated training pipeline, increasing opportunities for advanced skills training and post fellowship training for rural generalists. Under this strategy, NT Health will expand the rural generalist workforce into primary care settings where new models of care incorporate rural generalist medicine principles. The rural generalist strategy aims to ensure that approximately 40% of the NT population has access to medical services and doctors who are equipped to meet rural and community needs.