Encouraging general practitioners to train medical students

To the Editor: There is a significant shortage of general practitioners in Australia, and many of those in practice are nearing retirement. The government has belatedly realised the need to train more GPs and in the past few years has dramatically increased university places for medical students. Coupled with this increase in numbers is the need for medical students to gain more of their education in general practice, where patients with many of the common medical problems are now managed. This has increased the pressure on universities to place medical students in general practice, and they are having difficulty finding enough willing and capable GPs to train their students.