The Australian Guide to Starting Up for Success
Foreword by Professor Michael Kidd AO
Ships July 2026 · Free delivery Australia-wide
Pre-Order Paperback Ebook $14.95 (was $19.95)Secure payment via Stripe · Published by Banksia Medical Press
General practice ownership is one of the most rewarding — and most demanding — decisions a doctor can make. Most GPs enter it underprepared, learning through costly mistakes that a better guide could have prevented.
The General Practice Playbook is the comprehensive, Australian-specific guide to GP practice ownership that has never existed until now. Built on fifteen years of building Banksia Medical Centre from a single clinic in Newcomb to four sites and five clinics across the Geelong region, it covers the complete journey from the personal decision through to financial management, team building, compliance, innovation, and scaling.
It is also honest about the hardest question: whether you should start at all. Not every GP should own a practice. This book will help you decide — and if the answer is yes, it will show you how to do it well.
Thinking about practice ownership after Fellowship? This book gives you the complete picture — including the honest assessment of whether now is the right time for you.
In your first three years of ownership and navigating the complexity of running a business while delivering clinical care? This is your reference guide.
Running a successful practice and thinking about growth, a second site, or what the next decade looks like? The chapters on scaling, AI, and succession planning are written for you.
This book fills that gap with clarity, candour, and practical insight. Associate Professor Bernard Shiu writes not as a distant observer, but as a general practitioner and healthcare leader who has built and sustained successful general practices serving several Australian communities.
“ Setting up a medical practice has changed considerably over the last 35 years. Many would say that, without a resource like this, it would be almost impossible to contemplate due to the complexity involved. This book guides you through the process, helping ensure you are in the right frame of mind and approaching practice ownership with your ‘eyes wide open’.
General practice is an incredibly rewarding career, and being a practice owner makes it even more so. With a resource like this, what can otherwise be a confronting and lonely journey becomes far less stressful. I highly commend this book to anyone contemplating practice ownership.
“ I wish I had a resource like this when I started my first practice! This is a well-thought-through book. I particularly like the preface: ‘Is owning a general practice right for you?’ I think this is a really excellent tool for people to go through before they start thinking through the challenge of business ownership.
“ GP-owned and operated practices deliver the quality care that patients deserve. This book is a valuable resource for guiding ethical medical-business leadership in the community, and I highly recommend it.
Pre-orders ship July 2026. Secure your copy now at the conference discount price.
Secure payment via Stripe · Australian orders only · Published by Banksia Medical Press (ISBN 978-1-7646768-0-9)
Download the showcase extract — includes the Preface, The Owner Mindset, the complete Financial Management chapter, the People Matrix framework, and Final Thoughts.
Approximately 40 pages · Free · No obligation
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