Single Employer Model

The Victorian Government is testing a new way to boost the number of rural generalists working in rural and regional Victoria.

Victoria is trialling a Single Employer Model (SEM), that allows rural generalist trainees to stay employed by a single health service while undertaking primary care training placements in rural and regional Victoria.

The trial started in 2025 in the Gippsland, Grampians and Loddon Mallee regions. Trial are led by:

• Bairnsdale Regional Health Service
• Grampians Health
• Mildura Base Public Hospital.

The trial has since been expanded to Hume and Barwon South West. From 2027, Northeast Health Wangaratta and South West Healthcare will help more trainees stay and work in rural communities.

Primary care providers

Victoria's SEM trial helps attract more junior doctors into rural generalist training and supports more doctors to work in rural communities where they are needed most.

Single employer models can reduce the administrative work involved in managing pay and employment conditions. It also helps trainees build enduring connections with health services and rural communities.

Victoria has committed to ensuring that participating primary care providers, trainees and health services are not financially disadvantaged by taking part in the trial.

Register your primary care provider for the SEM trial.

Hosting a Single Employer Model trainee

When you host a Single Employer Model (SEM) trainee:

• You get to decide which trainees join your practice. Your current recruitment and selection processes or timelines will stay the same.
• Continue to supervise and train trainees. Your responsibilities and work with the general practice training college will not change.
• Approve the Single Employer Model trainee's leave and timesheets. This helps the employing health service pay the trainee accurately.
• Continue your usual billing processes for services provided by the Single Employer Model trainee.
• Provide information to the employing health service about the Single Employer Model trainee's billings and clinic sessions and contribute to the trainee's salary costs through a partial reimbursement.

Trainees

The Single Employer Model (SEM) gives trainees more certainty about their pay and working conditions. It also makes it easier to move between rural hospital and primary care placements.

As trainees progress through their training, they keep their employment benefits, including long service and parental leave.

Complete our registration form to register your interest.

How you can participate as a trainee

The Single Employer Model (SEM) trial is open to full or part-time trainees who:

• are registered with the Victorian Rural Generalist Program (VRGP)
• are enrolled, or plan to enrol with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) or the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) on a rural generalist training pathway
• plan to undertake a primary care placement in 2027 or 2028.

Participating health services will review expressions of interest and select trainees for the trial.

The Single Employer Model trial supports local training pathways. Priority is given to trainees who plan to live and work in the same VRGP region as the participating health service. Learn more about the VRGP regions.

Trainees from anywhere in Victoria can apply for a position with one of the participating health services.

Taking part in the Single Employer Model is optional. Trainees can leave the trial anytime without affecting their training.

How Victoria's Single Employer Model works

During a primary care placement, trainees are supervised by the primary care provider but remain employed by their health service. Trainees may also be seconded with other health services to build their skills or gain additional training, while staying on the same employment contract.

Participating health services employ trainees under the Victorian Public Health Sector (AMA Victoria - Doctors in Training Enterprise Agreement 2022-2026) or any replacement agreement.

Trainees can complete their training with any primary care provider taking part in the trial that has been approved by the relevant GP training college and health service.

Primary care providers manage trainee rosters and leave during primary care placements and share this information with the employing health services.

The Australian Government supports the trial through an exemption under Section 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973. This allows trainees to bill Medicare, while continuing to receive a salary from their health service.

Under the trial, the primary care provider receives the trainee's billings. The health service invoices the primary care provider for 50% of the trainee's billings. The first $100 billed in each half-day session is not included in the invoice. The department helps cover the remaining costs of employing the trainee.

The Single Employer Model only changes how trainees are employed. It does not change their training pathway. Trainees, supervisors and practices continue to receive the same payments and incentives available through primary care training programs under the Single Employer Model.

The Victorian Rural Generalist Program

The Victorian Rural Generalist Program (VRGP) is a state-wide rural generalist training program that helps the future rural generalist workforce to train, work and live in rural and regional Victoria.

Rural generalists play an important role in our rural and regional communities. They provide a range of healthcare services including primary care, emergency care and other medical specialist care in hospitals and community settings.

The Victorian Rural Generalist Program manages the Single Employer Model trial. Regional Coordinators help trainees to plan their training and provide career support throughout the program and as they move into rural generalist positions in their region.

Find out more, see the Victorian Rural Generalist Program website.