Do you feel like your consults often go above and beyond? You’re not alone; a new study has revealed the hidden complexity of general practice where on average a GP may tackle eight health issues in just 19 minutes.
The research team, led by general practitioner Adjunct Professor Liz Sturgiss from Monash University’s School of Primary and Allied Health Care, looked to the National Centre for Healthy Ageing’s new simulation facility to help solve access problems to doctors’ consultations.
The NCHA’s Digital Library is Australia’s first secure digitised collection of real-world consultations between GPs and their adult patients, plus related data including anonymised transcripts, patient survey logs and participant demographic data.
Researchers studied 54 video-recorded GP consultations from four different doctors and identified a number of complex health issues raised or discussed by patients.
They found that eight different health issues, on average, were mentioned or discussed with the GP during a 19-minute consultation.
The breadth of the health issues spanned from musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, psychological, skin, and digestive complaints.
GPs were also called on for lifestyle counselling about nutrition and weight management issues.
The study also found that GPs needed a thorough understanding of medications, with almost every patient (98%) raising the issue.
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It found GPs shoulder a significant administrative burden, which included creating pathology and imaging requests, providing medical certificates, calling the pharmacy to organise an authority script and making follow-up GP and practice nurse appointments.
Additionally, the administrative burden included printing off copies of test results or imaging for the patient to take to other health professionals and assisting with social security and insurance paperwork.
Dr Sturgiss said it was important to demonstrate the complexity of what GPs are managing with each patient.
“Our study showed what is really happening behind the closed GP consultation door,” she said.
“As doctors we recognise the mental load of comprehensive general practice. But there is also joy in providing whole person care.”
Increasing complexity of care was recently highlighted as the number one issue facing GPs in the RACGP’s 2025 Health of the Nation report.
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The exploratory study confirmed that GP consultations usually include the management of multiple conditions that span multiple health systems.
The team concluded that general practice research must include explorations of the consultation process, so the complexity of the specialty of general practice can be better communicated to policymakers.
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