Increased rebates recommended

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed proposals for a substantial boost in funding for GPs following the release of a report on the provision of primary health services to outer metropolitan, rural, and regional Australians.


The Community Affairs References Committee’s interim report recommends the federal Government investigates substantially increasing Medicare rebates for all levels of general practice consultations, as well as other general practice funding options.

RACGP President Clinical Professor Karen Price said that the report vindicates what GPs have been saying for many years and comes at a time when GPs are significantly impacted by the fallout of COVID.

“Medicare rebates for patients simply haven’t kept pace with inflation and the cost of providing high-quality general practice care,” Professor Price said.

“General practices across Australia have done their best when faced with Medicare freezes, inadequate rebates, that don’t take account of what is required to care for patients with complex needs, as well as many other challenges such as absorbing the cost of participating in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

“Substantially increasing Medicare rebates at all levels will make an enormous difference for patient care in communities right across Australia.”

The distribution of the primary health workforce is a significant issue for Australia’s health system, with people living in outer-metropolitan, regional, and rural areas having less access to timely and affordable primary health care and worse health outcomes than those in cities.

The RACGP President said that investing in general practice would benefit the entire health system.

“For too long, general practice care has been taken for granted. By increasing patient rebates and boosting general practice funding, we can give primary care a much-needed shot in the arm and relieve pressure on the nation’s health system,” Professor Price said.

“If more support is given to general practice, we can help more patients in need and ease the burden on a health system already under immense pressure, including our hospitals.

“When rebates don’t keep pace with inflation, let alone the cost of providing high-quality care, practice viability suffers – particularly in areas of lower socio-economic status and rural and remote areas – and if practices are forced to close their doors, this can lead to people ending up in a hospital bed for a condition that should have been taken care of by their usual GP.”

Professor Price said that greater investment in general practice was also vital in securing the future of the GP workforce, particularly in country areas where finding a GP can prove difficult if not impossible.

“If we are serious about boosting the general practice workforce we must invest in general practice and address long-term funding arrangements… Unless we do so, we are at serious risk of running out of GPs at a time when we are needed by our communities more than ever before.”

Successive governments have implemented a range of policies aimed to improve the distribution of the primary health workforce with limited success, and Professor Price urged whoever formed government following the federal election to act decisively and put the committee’s recommendation into practice.

“This is just an interim report and there is a lot of work to be done to make this recommendation a reality; however, I believe today is a small but important step forward for general practice,” she said.