Single Employer Model
The Single Employer Model (SEM) is a Commonwealth initiative that is helping tackle a major challenge for regional areas in South Australia - the recruitment and retention of doctors to better service local communities.
The SEM is an optional pathway that addresses a major barrier for those entering rural general practice training – the loss of employee entitlements when they leave the public sector to do a practice-based placement.
Under the model they can be employed by SA Health as salaried employees during their general practice training and retain benefits such as such as sick leave and parental leave.
By choosing stability with one employer, doctors in training can put down roots and make meaningful connections with patients and the community while they pursue the rural generalist pathway.
In 2023 the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) became the first regional Local Health Network (LHN) in South Australia to trial the model, through its Riverland Academy of Clinical Excellence (RACE).
There are up to 20 SEM positions at RACE at any one time and RACE continues to attract and retain rural generalist registrars. Doctors are also successfully integrating into local primary care and hospital systems.
There are now more than 30 RACE trainees working across RMCLHN, with a 98% retention rate – increasing the region’s medical workforce by more than 25%.
This success positions SEM as a potentially powerful tool in attracting future GP and Rural Generalist trainees across regional South Australia. The Rural Support Service (RSS), in collaboration with several stakeholders, has now worked to implement the SEM across all regional LHNs.
Under the SEM, a further 60 positions will become available in early 2025 at a further five regional local health networks: Barossa Hills Fleurieu, Yorke and Northern, Flinders and Upper North, Eyre and Far North, and Limestone Coast.
The wider trial is a collaboration between the RSS and their Rural Generalist Coordination Unit under the Rural Generalist Program South Australia (RGPSA), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), regional LHNs, the State and Federal governments, and local stakeholders including GP clinics.
Further information about the single employer model is available on the RGPSA website, or by downloading the RSS SEM Factsheet (PDf 245KB).