Junior Doctors Training to Be GPs Increases by 20 Percent

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.
“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.
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.
“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.
“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.