In 1995 General Practitioners from Bunbury formed their own Division. However, the other south west towns of Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River, Augusta, Pemberton, Manjimup, Boyup Brook, Collie, Harvey and Waroona decided to align with Peel. They chose to do so because of the similar health care issues facing smaller rural towns and the similarity of tourist services in Busselton and Mandurah. Bunbury has an extensive industry base, a larger population and is far better serviced with health care and other services.

The Division aims to ensure General Practitioners are central to quality primary health care within the geographical region of the Peel South West Division of General Practice.

Throughout the region there is a shortage of General Practitioners. The inland towns of Pinjarra, Waroona, Harvey, Collie, Bridgetown, Manjimup, Pemberton are most deficient with Nannup and Northcliffe not having a General Practitioner, although one visits from other towns. Some of these regions have one General Practitioner to 5,000 people. The coastal areas seem on paper to have a good supply of General Practitioners, however, due to these towns being holiday destinations, the population can nearly double during weekends, and summer periods.

Due to the rate of population growth within the region the shortage of General Practitioners is an increasing problem. Some practices having been trying to find Doctors for well over a year in the better-serviced regions. In the less serviced regions they have been advertising for two to three years. Locums and holiday relief are also major issues. Group practices can usually cover holidays but a number of solo or two person practices find this very difficult.

The Peel South West Division of General Practice has 13 Health Services within the region. Most of the Health Services have conducted community health surveys and we have examined each of their strategic plans to identify areas we may have missed and to ensure that we are not duplicating services.