The facts on the ground are different.
GPs are more accessible than patients are led to believe.
“Patients can’t get in to see a GP” has become a very convenient argument used to diminish the power and the work of GPs.
It is also the narrative that is being used—deliberately—to justify the shifting of low-complexity, high-value work away from general practice.
But the facts on the ground are different.
Here’s what “access” looks like in a normal week at a well-run Australian practice:
- Asynchronous care is mainstream. Online requests for repeat prescriptions, forgotten referrals, and medical certificates—are all in a GP’s workflow and sidebar.
- Telehealth is not a novelty. Telehealth is how we deliver continuity when people are too sick, too contagious, too busy and/or too regional, rural or remote.
- “On-the-day” appointments are deliberately designed into capacity. New appointments drop at midnight, every night. This is how chaos becomes control.
- Telehealth On Demand exists as a safety net. Same-day, single-issue — mostly used by younger adults in regional areas when they need timely advice or an urgent low-complexity consult. And information is shared with their regular GP.
- Waiting times are under five minutes when you’re doing it right.
The point
When we talk about “access,” we are talking about the systems of access that make Australian general practice the best health system in the world for health outcomes.
General practice is the coordinating centre, the backbone, of Australia’s health system: prevention, early diagnosis, risk management, and sensible navigation of everything downstream.
Related
Could we improve access further? Probably.
But allowing a simplistic catchphrase to be used to diminish general practice and siphon away the work that keeps primary care continuous, safe, and cost-effective is very problematic.
Is Australian general practice worth fighting for? I believe it is.
Dr Nerida McDonald is a GP and founder/owner of Walker Street Doctors in North Sydney since 2012.
This article was first published on Dr McDonald’s LinkedIn Feed. Read the original article here.
