Who should receive recruitment and retention incentives? Improved targeting of rural doctors using medical workforce data

Objective: The objective of this study was to define an improved classification for allocating incentives to support the recruitment and retention of doctors in rural Australia. Design and setting: Geo-coded data (n=3636 general practitioners (GPs)) from the national Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life study were used to examine statistical variation in four professional indicators (total hours worked, public hospital work, on call after-hours and difficulty taking time off) and two non-professional indicators (partner employment and schooling opportunities) which are all known to be related to difficulties with recruitment and retention. Main outcome measures: The main outcome measure used for the study was an association of six sentinel indicators for GPs with practice location and population size of community. Results: Four distinct homogeneous population size groups were identified (0-5000, 5001-15000, 15001-50000 and >50000). Although geographical remoteness (measured using the Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA)) was statistically associated with all six indicators (P