Table 2 Details of item costs and data sources for costing the policy scenarios

Increased role substitution (scenario 3)

Average cost of nurse consultations

Medicare Australia—unreferred attendances practice nurse items, 2013−2016 [51]

Average cost for nurse consultations was based on total services and total benefits averaged over 4 years.

Average cost of nurse consultations: AUD $13.74

Average cost of GP consultations

Medicare Australia—unreferred attendances VR, non−VR and enhanced primary care items, 2013–2016 [51]

Average cost for GP consultations was based on total services and total benefits averaged over 4 years

Average cost of GP consultations: AUD $48.48

Increased GP training positions (scenario 6)

Cost of training a GP registrar

GPET Annual Report to June 2014 [24]

Annual cost based on 5-year average cost per FTE training week of AUD $962 × 52 weeks (2009–2013)

Annual cost of one training position: AUD $50,024

Represents total expenditure by Regional Training Provides on the AGPT program including recurrent and non-recurrent costs

Reduced IMG recruitment (scenario 8)

Average cost to recruit an IMG

International Recruitment Strategy (IRS), Department of Health Budget Portfolio statements 2014–2015 [52]

Rural Health Workforce Australia Annual reports 2013 to 2016 [53,54,55,56]

Four-year average target for IMGs recruited through the IRS

Four-year average cost of IRS program

Average cost of recruitment of IMG: AUD$28,769