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.