Meeting of National Cabinet – Strengthening Medicare and Health Reform

This RACGP News article explores a new report for the government's Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding. The report is co-authored by the NSW Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, and it makes important observations regarding the current funding model - including its lack of funding for preventative health care strategies, and its inefficient support of innovative service delivery and the development of new models of care, especially out-of-hospital models of care.

In this analysis, we calculate the Full-time Equivalent (FTE) of AHPRA registration numbers for each professional category and compare the ratio and rate of FTE AHPRA Registered professionals per head of population in Australia.

This article from NewsGP refers to a new ABS analysis of patient experiences, which reveals that the number of people who are delaying or avoiding seeing a GP due to cost, has doubled since last year. The article discusses price perceptions, cost-of-living pressures, practice viability in disadvantaged areas, fragmented care and the widening gap between health outcomes and access to services.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ News GP runs a weekly poll to gauge GP perspectives on various topics of interest. In this article, we provide a summary of poll results for last year - exploring what mattered to general practice in 2023, and the challenges that are set to continue in 2024 and beyond.