The demand for medical practitioners varies according to different regions in various states in Australia. Australian doctors and international medical graduates (IMGs) both have the chance of working in any state or region. However, requirements are in place to ensure that IMGs do work in specific areas with a shortage of medical practitioners, which are classified as DPAs. Read on to find out what DPA is and how it affects medical practices across Australia.

What is DPA?

Distribution Priority Area (DPA) is a classification system that identified areas within Australia that have a shortage of medical practitioners. It identifies locations with lower levels of general practice (GP) services in relation to a benchmark of GP services in Australia. It is an initiative to increase the supply of doctors in these areas. This ensures that people in all states and regions across Australia have access to quality medical care.

How are DPA classifications determined?

The DPA classification system takes into consideration account Medicare billings by age demographics, gender, and socio-economic status of patients in a location. This system also considers the Modified Monash Model (MMM) classification system which works according to geographical areas. . DPA is assessed for more than 800 GP catchment areas.

All areas are assessed for GP services based on the following:

• Level of Medicare billed GP services for the population for the current year.
• DPA for each GP catchment is determined based on the structure of communities, based on factors such as age, demographics, gender, and social-economic indexes according to the data available.
• The area is considered a DPA if the actual billing level is lower than the respective benchmark.

Each GP catchment has two benchmarks as follows:

·        International Medical Graduates (IMGs)

·        Bonded Medical Places (BMP) participants

The benchmark is determined in the following manner:

• Modified Monash Model (MMM) 2 average of access to GP services for IMGs.
• The national average of access to GP services for BMP.

GP Catchments

The DPA uses 827 non-overlapping geographical GP catchment areas. The creation of GP catchments include:

·        Patient rotation and flow using provider data over a five-year period

·        Population demographics

·        GP workforce including location and amount of GPs in practice

·        GP infrastructure including the total amount of practices

·        Accessibility of area such as travel distances and road networks

·        Topography of the region such as water bodies, mountain ranges, national parks, and islands

·        Recognition of various boundaries including local government areas, and territory borders.

The DPAs are determined using current updated data. The most available data is from 21 July 2022. The DPA uses the following for data and statistics:

• MBS calendar year 2021 patient billing for GP services
• Population statistics from the ABS 2020-21 Estimated Residential Population (ERP)

The ERP data is at Statistical Area (SA) 1 level by gender group and in 1-year age blocks. These details provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are more granular and informative than what is publicly available.

Review of the DPA Classification System

The DPA is reviewed and updated accordingly annually. An area’s DPA classification can change if there has been a prominent change in access to healthcare compared with the previous update. This can happen due to changes in the workforce and population.

Some areas can even be removed from DPA status. This means that there has been a significant and positive change within medical care in the respective location. This update in the DPA classification system provides greater transparency because it shows the following:

·        The present DPA classification of an area

·        The variance level below and above the benchmark level

It helps to assess how GP services have improved in the area and what kind of changes are required to pass the benchmark level for other areas classified as DPAs.

MMM classification

The Modified Monash Model (MMM) classification system goes hand in hand with the DPA classification system. The MMM defines whether a specific location is a metropolitan, rural, remote or very remote area.

This model measures the remoteness and population on a size scale of Modified Monash (MM) that is categorized from 1 to 7. MM 1 defines a city area whereas MM 7 defines a very remote area. Understanding this classification system helps to distribute the health workforce in remote and rural areas where there is a scarcity of healthcare professionals and medical practices.

The MMM classifications are based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard – Remoteness Area (ASGS-RA) framework. The MMM classification system is updated after each census that the ABS conducts every five years.

The DPA classification system uses MMM boundaries. Certain government programs use the MMM classification system to define eligibility criteria for those who want to enter them. These programs are aimed at encouraging junior doctors, GP registrars and qualified GPs to train and practice in remote and rural areas in Australia.

You can find MMM classifications on the Health Workforce Locator system defined by the government of Australia.

Here are the blanket rules that the DPA applies:

• MMM1 areas are automatically classified as Non-DPA. 
• MMM2-4 areas are assessed as DPA if the ratio of doctor to patient is below the required amount needed to service that area. 
• MMM5-7 areas are automatically updated to DPA. 

Exceptional circumstances framework

Applications for a review of the DPA classification of a specific area will be considered based on the following:

·        Changes to healthcare workforce, services or healthcare system.

·        Changes in patient demographics. This includes socio-economic status, the proportion of aged citizens, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.

·        Absence of services. This is applicable to areas that have experienced recent difficulties in recruiting or retaining doctors.

How does DPA differ from other classification systems?

DPA shows the GP services of a GP catchment compared to a benchmark level, which is not the case in every classification system available.

·        District of Workforce Shortage (DWS) shows the number of non-GP specialists compared to the population of a specific location.

·        The MMM shows the remoteness of a location.

A combination of these two successfully identified the areas that truly lack of healthcare workforce. Thereafter, it works towards improving the doctor supply and healthcare access in these areas.

Medfuture jobs in rural Australia

Medfuture continuously strives in providing medical jobs widespread across all states and regions in Australia. We follow the DPA and MMM classification models to ensure that adequate jobs from these regions are being popularized through our website.

The Medfuture job board highlights doctor jobs with DPA and a MM status greater than 1. Our database has a large number of doctor jobs classified as DPA and MM (2-7). Visit our job board to view the latest medical jobs in Australia.

Conclusion

The DPA classification system along with MMM is effective in supplying doctors to even the most remote locations in Australia. With this system, Australia can expect to see a higher turnaround of doctors in remote and rural areas to uplift the healthcare system in these locations.

Here is a related article to read:

Do IMGs have to work in rural Australia?