A DRIVE to increase doctors for Beechworth Surgery affected by the ongoing national shortage kicked off on Wednesday with a $1000 reward available in its ‘Find Doctors for Beechworth’ campaign.

The general practice is offering the reward to local community groups of your choice for all the good work they undertake if you connect them to a GP to join the Surgery.

Practice owner John McColl said three doctors are being sought with three community groups each to potentially receive $1000 for the good work they undertake.

"Our core value is providing high quality healthcare for our patients, and we want them to be able to do that in a timely manner,” he said.

“We know it’s frustrating for them if that’s not possible.

“We continue to try regular ways to recruit doctors and have also engaged a UK-based specialist GP agency."

Mr McColl said the campaign arose from a patient asking what could be done to help.

“By spreading the word, we hope someone may have a contact somewhere in Australia that leads us to a new doctor," he said.

"The practice owner said strong support has been received from community groups such service and sporting clubs and businesses.

“All GP practices in the region face the same issue and more needs to be done to attract and retain doctors in smaller towns.

“By the end of January next year, we will have equivalent of 4.1 full-time doctors for a population of around 4500 people and by the end of August we’ll be down to 3.3 while two years ago we had the equivalent of 5.5 full-time doctors.

“We need at least two new full-time doctors which would give us 170 extra appointments a week."

Beechworth Surgery practice manager Jane Pearce said people who leave the area often come back to attend the Surgery, along with new people moving to town.

“Numbers are growing, but we're not able to find the GPs to help,” she said.

For local cartoonist and café owner Adrian Osborne, he said it's imperative to get more GPs moving to the area.

“It improves health outcomes for the community and gives the community more health options as well,” he said.

“Anything that reduces wait times and improves the quality of healthcare to the community is a bonus, and this initiative is definitely one way to go about getting that outcome.”

Mr Osborne said resources are needed to keep up with population growth.

“Beechworth is a fantastic place to live if you're healthy and don't have ongoing medical or chronic health concerns,” he said.

“Even though we're 20 minutes away from the next regional hospital, it's imperative to have quality health care in the town and this initiative is something we can all get behind.”

Mr Osborne had a major motorbike accident 22 years ago where a significant part of his recovery was due to reliable, quality medical care while living in a regional community.

He said it led him to train as an and Ambulance Community Officer (ACO) in 2015 to work alongside paramedics as a first responder.

Beechworth and district community groups and businesses can register their campaign support at www.surveymonkey.com/r/RegisterFDFB and will be provided with materials to share.

The campaign runs until the end of May next year.

For further details visit www.beechworthsurgery.com.au/find-doctors-for-beechworth/.