More GPs and increase in bulk billing, part of good report card for Tasmania’s general practice

The head of Tasmania’s GP body has celebrated the improvements in general practice shown in a new report, but says continued funding is needed to grow them.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Health of the Nation 2024 report has given insight into general practice in Australia and Tasmania, showing improvement in GP care.

Tasmania’s GP body is excited to finally share some good news about the state’s workforce, with the release of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Health of the Nation 2024 report on Tuesday.

Among the positive findings was a slight increase in full-time general practitioners (GPs) employed in Tasmania as well as a seven per cent up-tick in bulk billing from last year for the majority of patients at clinics.

The annual report provides insight into the state of general practice Australia-wide through data and surveys of current GPs and GPs in training.

RACGP Tasmania chair Dr Toby Gardner was in Canberra for the launch of the 2024 report on Tuesday, sharing Tasmania’s GP insights with the federal health minister Mark Butler and other health counterparts.

Doctor Toby Gardner chair of Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Tasmania. Tasmanian GP's visited the Tasmanian parliament to call on politicians to fund the state'•s health workforce. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Some Tasmanian findings are that we’ve been able to place registrars in areas that traditionally haven’t had registrars,” he said.

“Since the RACGP took back over training, we were able to get a registrar to the Aboriginal Medical Service in Launceston, there was a registrar in Dover, but I think they’ve since moved to Burnie, so we’re finding that we’re able to get more doctors into regions that they traditionally weren’t in.

“Having met with a number of MPs this morning who are from the North-West region, they’ve been saying they’ve actually been seeing younger doctors starting to come into regions that haven’t been before.”

As the state with the lowest bulk billing rates in the country, Dr Gardner said the increase in bulk billing in Tasmania shown in the report was good news, but still required further investment from the federal government to reduce the fee gap and increase rebates for patients.

RACGP Tasmania chair Dr Toby Gardner, right, with the federal assistant minister for health, aged care and Indigenous health Ged Kearney MP at the Tuesday launch of the RACGP Health of the Nation 2024 report. Picture: supplied.

Job satisfaction for Tasmanian GPs jumped, with 73 per cent of GPs nationally stating they are satisfied with their job, an increase from 66 per cent in 2023.

“In Tasmania, the number of medical students who choose pursue general practice is above the national average of 10 per cent and I think that’s because we have a GP who’s the dean of the medical school, and we’ve got GPs who are the heads of each of the clinical schools in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart, and I work at UTAS as well as being a GP,” Dr Gardner said.

“What we’re seeing is that having GPs working in universities and promoting general practice is translating to more junior medicine students and junior doctors choosing general practice as a career because they’ve had that exposure and good exposure.

“Our training places in Tassie were completely filled really quickly this year up until next year.

“We’re lobbying government to try and increase the number of GP trainees each year in Australia, because we know that we can fill those spaces and then train more GPs, particularly locally, so we can keep them here to look after our ageing population.”

Tasmanian GPs, particularly those in rural areas already overworked, expressed that administrative “red tape” was one of the biggest motivating factors in leaving the GP sector, holding back doctors from innovating in their practices.

Originally published as More GPs and increase in bulk billing, part of good report card for Tasmania’s general practice