NSW facing 1000 GP shortfall within four years, demands feds ‘step up’

The growing shortfall of GPs in NSW is set to hit 1000 within four years, and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has fired up at his federal counterparts.

NSW will be hit with a shortfall of 1000 doctors within four years, with the current lack of general practitioners already being blamed for a soaring number of patients attending emergency wards in critical condition.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has demanded his federal counterpart Mark Butler “step up” and do more to plug the gap following the alarming forecasts, contained in a new federal health report covering the growing demand — and diminishing supply — of GPs across Australia.

The report, released this week by the Department of Health and Aged Care, states NSW has a current unmet demand for GPs equivalent to a shortfall of 460 full-time doctors.

That is forecast to soar to more than 1000 doctors by 2028, with that figure set to almost triple to 2700 by 2048.

State authorities fear the current shortfall has already had a dire impact on emergency departments at hospitals, with NSW Health estimating a one per cent decrease in bulk-billing equates to about 3000 additional emergency presentations.

NSW Minister for Health, Ryan Park, has called for the federal government to ‘step up’ to help ease strain caused by the country’s GP shortage. Picture: Simon Bullard

The latest health figures show that in the year to March 31, NSW hospitals experienced a surge of serious presentations — described as category one and two presentations — with an extra 34,000 patients, up 7.2 per cent on the year before.

Health figures fear the difficulty in accessing a GP is causing people to wait until their condition deteriorates, eventually forcing them to an emergency department.

Mr Park said “states and territories are bearing the burden of this (shortfall) with enormous pressure on our hospitals”.

“We understand that the GP shortage is the result of the previous federal Coalition’s freeze on Medicare rebates; that it won’t be undone overnight, and that minister Butler is working hard to turn it around,” he said.

“But the reality remains.

“We’re very concerned that Australians who have difficulty accessing a GP will let their conditions become more severe and have no choice but to go to a busy emergency department.”

Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler. Picture: Jane Dempster

Mr Park said NSW was “playing its part” by boosting hospital capacity and rolling out urgent care clinics so people could get treatment outside of EDs, but said more federal cash was needed in the next health funding deal between the Commonwealth government and the states.

“But the federal government needs to step up too, by paying their fair share under the next National Health Reform Agreement,” he said.

The federal government has previously pledged to put forward a “historic increase in hospital funding” in the deal.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler blamed the blooming shortfall of GPs on the former Coalition government, and said under the Albanese government bureaucratic red tape had been slashed, with a record 8900 doctors from overseas registering to practice in Australia since July 2022.

He added the federal government had “tripled the bulk billing incentive, the biggest investment in the history of Medicare”.

“This is the green shoots of recovery, but it will take a long time to repair the damage caused by the former Liberal government,” he said.

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