General Practice in Australia – some interesting facts

One  third of GP’s are aged 55 + yo , 13% are 65 or older. And 15% of GP’s plan to retire  within the next 5 years and 32% within 10 years . Only 21% of general practices are owned by  GP’s and 21% of these plan to retire within 5 years… There  has been no increase in  registrars training  for  general practice  in the past 2 years.

90% of Australians see a GP once a year and 86% a  twice a year or more.  . An average GP’s workload is 73% face to face and 27% phone calls , paperwork and results review afterward which is generally unpaid.

 

A $1 billion dollar  reduction in funding for GP services  occurred over the past 4 years , currently GP services cost  around $375 / person pa whilst  public hospital expenditure is $2606 / person pa.

There are 114 GP’s / 100,000 in Australia  . There are 143 specialists /100,00 in Australia.

Practices exclusively Bulk Billing all services  has decreased from 29% (2017) to 18% (2019)  the  remainder have mixed billing  arrangements. The oft  quoted “87% services are  bulk billed “is a total inclusive of  GP services and associated  pathology and radiology items most of which are bulk billed.