Junior Doctors Training to Be GPs Increases by 20 Percent

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The number of junior doctors training to become General practitioners (GPs) has increased by nearly 20 percent, but there is still a shortage.

The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) revealed that 1,504 junior doctors have taken up places in its Australian GP Training Program, an increase of 19.8 percent or 249 future GPs.

For the first time in years, the RACGP has managed to fill all its training positions.

Among the new trainees, 844 have accepted a general training pathway, 583 the rural pathway, and 77 will undertake composite rural placements.

However, RACGP President Dr. Nicole Higgins called on the government to do more to tackle Australia’s GP shortage.

“This 20 percent growth in GPs in training is a sign the GP workforce is recovering. But it can’t be taken as a sign the job is done. The story we’ve been told, and that we’ve often told each other as GPs, is one of general practice in decline,” Higgins said.

“We’ve shown we can train more GPs, and we’ve shown we can get GPs to the communities who need them most, including rural and regional communities. We just need the funding to sustain this growth.”

RACGP Urges Government Action

Higgins called for increasing Medicare rebates, funding 500 more Australian GP program places in the next five years, and ensuring training GPs receive equal pay to other medical specialists.

“The 2024 budget failed to support patients, with no increase to their Medicare rebates when they needed cost of living relief. When our patients can see a GP when they need to, they stay healthy,” Higgins said.

“Everyone has a right to see a GP who knows their medical history when they need to. The cost of delivering care has gone up, now funding for patients to see a GP must too, or we risk going the way of the U.S. with its two-tier health system.”

Australians Face Long Waits and Cost Barriers

Meanwhile, data released on Nov. 18 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) highlighted continued challenges for patients.

28 percent of Australians in 2023-2024 reported unacceptable GP wait times, down slightly from 29.6 percent in the previous year.

The data also showed that 36.3 percent of people living in regional or remote areas felt they were waiting too long for GP appointments.

Further, 20.4 percent of people delayed or did not see a health professional for their own mental health due to cost.

In addition, 10.9 percent of people in disadvantaged areas delayed collecting or went without needed prescription medicine due to cost. Overall, 8 percent of Australians delayed or did not collect this prescription medication due to cost.

GPs continued to be the most common health professionals seen in 2023 to 2024.

Cost of Living Weighing On Health Decisions

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston said when it comes to the healthcare sector, it has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor.

“But the underlying problem is that people have got so little left in their pocket at the end of the week, they’re having to make decisions as to whether they fill their script, whether they go to the doctor or whether they put food on the table,” she said on 4BC.

“And that should not be happening in Australia. It’s all because we have had massive inflation, wasteful government spending, and people’s real wages have been going backwards.”

Meanwhile, the government is touting Medicare reforms, highlighting that it has led to an increase of 103,000 additional bulk-billed visits to the GP every week.

This equates to an average of 5.4 million bulk-billed visits since November last year. Among these, 2.2 million were in regional areas.

Health Minister Mark Butler said if the government is going to strengthen Medicare, they need more doctors and more bulk billing.

“Although we’re not out of the woods yet and there is a lot of work still to do, we are seeing things turn around in those areas that we need,” he said.

“We’ve got more doctors, we’ve got more bulk billing, and we’ve got Urgent Care Clinics that have already seen more than 850,000 patients, all fully bulk billed.”

The data showed 77.3 percent of GP visits were bulk billed in October 2024, 1.7 percentage points up compared to the corresponding month in 2023.

However, Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston said the Coalition achieved 88.8 percent bulk billing when Greg Hunt was Minister.

“In the first year and a half of this government, they dropped that bulk billing rate to 75.6 percent, and they’re now crowing about the fact that it’s gone up 1 percent. It’s still 11 percent less than when we left government,” she said.