The clinic received only three applications from overseas doctors for the role, which pays $150 to $170 an hour, depending on experience. But the work requires GPs to have a thorough understanding of Australia’s healthcare system to help their patients navigate it effectively. And there are regulatory barriers that prevent international hires.
Andric sees patients one day a week at the clinic while her own consulting list at the foundation’s Ashfield service fills up weeks in advance.
The foundation hopes that early-career doctors, retirees, or any GP up to the challenge will take on the work, which has all the additional hallmarks of a case manager, counsellor, and shield against the bureaucracy of the healthcare system.
“Our clients are traumatised, lonely people,” Andric said. “They are victims of their circumstances, who often have multiple undiagnosed conditions and avoid hospitals because they’ve been fobbed off … so by the time we see them, they are very unwell.”
The clinic is equipped to conduct comprehensive consultations of patients, aiming to address any urgent concerns that bring them in, as well as any underlying issues or risk factors that may have been overlooked over the years.
The average GP consultation is 30 to 40 minutes with patients who may not have formal identification, no income, Medicare or other forms of support.
“We might end up doing an iron infusion, an antibiotic infusion, blood tests, wound dressings and urgent scans,” Andric said.
Registered nurse Lex Sevill, the Reverend Bill Crews and Dr Nada Andric, in one of the empty consultants’ rooms at the Blacktown clinic that need to be filled.Credit: James Brickwood
Through sheer determination, staff tackle the red tape of the healthcare system to get their patients what they need, whether it’s an overdue hernia operation, specialist consults, or medication deliveries.
For one of the foundation’s doctors, Crews recalled, “There was a moment when they were working in a wealthy area of Sydney and a patient was having a nervous breakdown because her husband had just given her another million dollars, and she didn’t know which bank to put it in.
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“This doctor thought, ‘I’m wasting my time,’ ” said Crews, who chose the Blacktown location, having noticed an influx of people from western Sydney at the foundation’s Ashfield centre, which offers free meals, medical, dental, social services and other supports.
Andric’s pitch is simple: “There is something really honest about being able to offer safety to an incredibly vulnerable person who really did not want to be here and for them to know that I don’t want anything from them.
“I can say to them, ‘I just want you to tell me what is going on, and we can work on this together.’ And we get paid to do this. How good is that?” she said.
“This is joyous, wonderful work with a really supportive team. It’s interesting and rewarding, with lots of different [types of] medicine, and we really love the patients.”
Dr Tim Senior, chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ poverty and health group, said he was not surprised the clinic was having trouble recruiting.
“There’s a sense that only rural and remote areas have GP workforce shortages, but so do disadvantaged areas in major cities. Doctors working in west and south-west Sydney areas tell me they really struggle to recruit,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his fiancee Jodie Hayden and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth pack food hampers during a visit to the Rev. Bill Crews Foundation during the 2025 federal election campaign.Credit: AAPIMAGE
Senior said the pay was below what GPs could earn elsewhere and for easier work, such as telehealth weight loss or cannabis consultations, “but very often the GPs doing this sort of work aren’t in it for the money”.
“I think this sort of model will be necessary in deprived communities, where private GP clinics are unviable.”
But the healthcare system does not offer recruitment incentives based on socioeconomic disadvantage, Senior said.
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Western Sydney University’s School of Medicine was established to address the critical shortage of doctors in western Sydney.
Professor Penny Abbott, chair of general practice, said the program has had some success selectively recruiting students from western Sydney and creating opportunities for them to work in underserved communities.
WSU is among the universities across Australia applying for 100 Commonwealth supported places announced by the federal government in August to expand the GP workforce.
“We have to turn our minds more to the general practice and primary care curriculum to train students in the area we need them most,” Abbott said.
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