GP shortage in Australia as wait times explode, bulk billing plunges

There are huge wait times to see a GP as bulk billing plunges and Australia faces a doctor shortage. See where the vacancies are and what’s to come.

Exclusive: Patients are waiting up to 12 weeks to see a GP as bulk billing rates plunge, and it’s about to get worse.

At present there is a shortage of 860 GPs and by 2031 that will grow to more than 10,600 GPs, new analysis from the Australian Medical Association shows.

Doctor numbers plunged by 435 between 2019 and 2020 and medical groups are calling for increased Medicare rebates and workforce changes to attract more graduates.

“We are staring at this unimaginable shortage of GPs in our future and our projections show these pressures are just not going to ease up,” AMA president Professor Steve Robson said.

News Corp uncovered thousands of job vacancies for GPs around the country with the vacancies highest in rural and regional areas.

Medicare pays doctors just $39.75 when they bulk bill a standard consultation – way less than plumbers, dentists or other professionals charge – and poor remuneration is deterring medical students from a career in general practice.

Just 13.8 per cent of current medical students want to be a GP and nearly 250 GP training places went unfilled in 2020 and 2021, the AMA found.

Tap the map below:

Doctor shortage blows out patient wait times.

The Primary Care Business Council (PCBC), representing 5000 doctors in Australia’s largest GP clinics, said their bulk billing rate had plunged from 73 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent in October 2022.

Patients are now paying between $10-$50 in gap fees when they see a doctor.

The Department of Health had no idea of the GP shortfall because they “don’t do a headcount” and instead use a method ten years out of date, PCBC chair and GP Dr Jed Foley said.

See a snapshot of GP jobs across Australia in the last 30 days below:

The looming crisis is driving up wait times to see a GP to catastrophic levels.

In the year to June nearly 40 per cent of patients waited more than 24 hours for an urgent appointment, a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey found.

And the proportion of people who could not see their preferred GP on one or more occasions increased to 32.8 per cent in 2021-22, from 25.5 per cent in 2020-21, the ABS found.

A survey for Instantscripts found four in ten patients around Australia are waiting as long as three weeks for a GP appointment.

Tasmanian GP Dr Toby Gardner

Tasmanian GP Dr Toby Gardner, who works in a 28 GP practice in Launceston, said he is booked out until March.

“Where I live and work in Northern Tasmania, we are short around 20-30 GPs, and it’s set to get worse because we’re seeing GPs retire and not be replaced,” he said.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is calling for a tripling of the $6-$12 bulk billing incentive for people on healthcare cards and kids under 16, and a 20 per cent increase in the amount they are paid for longer consultations.

The AMA wants Medicare rebates increased, programs to attract and retain GP trainees, funds so GPs can employ physiotherapists, dietitians and mental health nurses and more money for after-hours care.

The Government has provided $250 million a year over three years to fund improvements in general practice but doctors says it is billions short of what is required.

Originally published as GP shortage in Australia as wait times explode, bulk billing plunges