Access is holding, capacity building is the challenge
In 2024–25, 99% of Australians could see a GP when needed. The proportion bulk billed for all GP visits increased to 63%, while GP job satisfaction rose from 71% to 76%. GPs also increasingly report working in multidisciplinary teams, including with nurse practitioners.
These are significant improvements. They indicate that investment in primary care, including the bulk-billing package, rural health strategies and thin-market projects, can improve access and strengthen confidence in the profession.
This matters because the Commonwealth Fund ranked Australia first for overall healthcare system performance across 10 high-income countries in 2024, but ninth for access to care (Mirror, Mirror 2024 | Commonwealth Fund).
Beyond the headline measures, general practice is absorbing greater clinical complexity, filling gaps elsewhere in the health system and operating under persistent workforce and financial pressure.
The challenge is not simply to maintain access. It is to build the capacity of general practices and other primary care providers to deliver continuous, comprehensive and sustainable care, particularly in disadvantaged and rural communities and thin provider markets.
General practice is carrying more of the system
In 2025, GPs delivered 171 million services to 22.9 million Australians.
The average consultation grew to 19.8 minutes, up almost 12% from 17.7 minutes in 2022. Two-thirds of GPs say they spend more time with patients, largely because presentations and care are becoming more complex.
The report also found:
- 72% of GPs identified increasing patient complexity as their leading challenge
- 67% nominated psychological presentations as a leading reason patients sought care
- 89% manage conditions that might otherwise be treated by non-GP medical specialists
- 76% manage conditions that might otherwise present to an emergency department or urgent care clinic
- 60% experienced burnout during the previous 12 months.
General practice is increasingly where gaps in non-GP specialist, mental health, urgent and community care are managed.
This contribution is easy to undervalue because much of it happens within an ordinary consultation. Just last week, a GP told us how often university students present with a relatively straightforward issue, then break down and disclose psychological distress.
Access is not the same as continuity
The finding that 99% of people could see a GP when needed is encouraging. However, while 79% of patients have a preferred GP, only 67.2% reported always being able to see that GP when needed.
Access can mean obtaining an appointment somewhere. Continuity means receiving care from a clinician or team that understands the patient’s history, circumstances and changing needs.
As care becomes more complex, continuity becomes more valuable. It’s particularly important in rural and remote communities, where workforce shortages and limited alternatives mean the loss of one GP or practice can affect an entire local health system.
Primary care access should therefore be assessed through multiple lenses including continuity, comprehensiveness, workforce resilience and service viability.
Multidisciplinary care requires more than additional workers
The report shows that 48% of practising GPs work in multidisciplinary care teams. Of these, 15% work closely with a nurse practitioner.
This is encouraging, but rising care complexity raises a broader question: are we doing enough to enable nurse practitioners, other nurses, allied health professionals and other primary care providers to work to the top of their scope? In Larter’s view, we are not. For example funding, pathways to specialisation and digital connectivity remain insufficient.
When the broader primary care team takes responsibility for elements of care, GPs can focus more time on where they specialise. Patients benefit from the skills of the whole team. The goal should be integrated primary healthcare teams in which every professional makes their fullest contribution.
This is especially important in rural and thin markets. Where GP capacity is limited, communities cannot afford to underuse other qualified professionals. Nurse practitioner-led or nurse-led care, effectively connected with GPs, can expand local capacity and reduce pressure on the GP workforce.
Our work also shows that team climate matters for high functioning multi-d teams: psychological safety; shared goals and purpose; mutual trust and respect; and effective communication and collaboration.
A well-designed team, supported by appropriate systems and funding, can increase capacity while preserving continuity.
Thin markets need place-based responses
Rural and remote communities continue to experience significant GP workforce shortfalls. In thin markets, recruitment alone rarely solves the problem. This is not simply a workforce supply problem; it is also a healthcare service planning and operating-model problem.
A community may have a small population spread across a large area, limited housing, workforce shortages, fragile practice economics and few alternative providers. Fee-for-service activity may not generate enough income to sustain the workforce and infrastructure required.
Continually advertising for another GP without addressing the underlying operating model is unlikely to create lasting capacity.
Solutions must reflect local circumstances and may include:
- strengthening an existing practice or community health provider
- enabling nurses, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals to work to full scope
- blended or block funding alongside Medicare revenue
- hub-and-spoke and outreach arrangements
- shared workforce models across organisations
- stronger partnerships between PHNs, health services, ACCHOs and local providers
- improved practice management, governance and financial systems.
This is where national reform meets local implementation. Policy matters, but the practical work of turning policy into a sustainable service model is just as important.
Take-home message: system and organisational capacity building is the missing piece
Workforce supply strategies and increased GP MBS rebates are great, but they will not create a stronger primary care system in isolation. Non-GP workforce shortages, inadequate infrastructure, fragmented communication and non-GP primary care funding constraints continue to limit multidisciplinary care.
The key missing piece is local system and organisational capacity: the governance, practice management, information sharing, workforce design and funding sources needed to turn individual clinicians into effective, coordinated teams.
At Larter, this is increasingly the focus of our work in rural Australia.
Our capacity-building work in thin markets starts by asking what will make local primary care stronger and more sustainable: what capacity exists, where the critical gaps are; which organisations are best placed to anchor the service; how the broader team can contribute; and what workforce and funding model can keep the service operating.
We apply the same approach to general practices managed by community health services. Our recent general practice support work with Latrobe Community Health Service included strengthening practice management, supporting accreditation readiness, improving Medicare systems and developing a clearer pathway towards workforce and financial sustainability.
So.. the 2026 Health of the Nation report shows that Australia’s GPs remain remarkably resilient.
Access may be holding, but it needs strong teams and organisational capacity behind it to be sustained.
Source: RACGP, General Practice: Health of the Nation 2026. The report was launched on 28 October 2026; the RACGP’s launch summary is available online.