Existing practices could be forced to compete with government-subsidised bulk billing clinics under the $25m plan for NSW, the RACGP warns.
Established GP practices could be put at risk by a $25 million government plan to fund six new bulk billing clinics in NSW, the RACGP has warned.
It fears existing practices that have already paid for premises, staff and equipment may be forced to compete with heavily subsidised operators under the federal government plan.
On Monday, the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECC PHN) unveiled the requirements providers must meet to establish and operate the clinics.
In May this year, the federal government announced it would inject $25.3 million over three years into six new bulk billing clinics in the Central Coast, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter regions, which are set to open in mid-2027.
This equates to roughly $1.41 million per clinic each year.
Collectively, the clinics are expected to deliver 155,000 fully bulk-billed GP services annually, making healthcare “cheaper and more accessible”, according to the government.
The funding was justified by “significantly lower” bulk billing rates in the region than the national average – even though these rates were not the lowest in NSW.
In its newly released Expression of Interest documents, each clinic must hold RACGP accreditation, provide all eligible services bulk billed, and employ at least 10 GPs.
The funding could be used to support the premises fit out, medical equipment, IT infrastructure, and staff recruitment, data collection, and CPD.
But Sharnna Graves, HNECC PHN’s Bulk Billing Initiatives Manager, said applications could not use recruitment approaches that “intentionally target, incentivise, or induce” GPs currently practising in the region”.
“We are seeking new service capacity rather than moving the existing capacity around the region,” she said.
Exactly where these GPs will come from remains unclear.
Related
RACGP NSW deputy co-chair Dr James Kelly told The Medical Republic that he believed there would be “aggressive recruitment” of NHS doctors to work in the proposed clinics.
While the college supported bulk billed medical practices and acknowledged genuine affordability concerns in the Hunter and Central Coast, he said the initiative’s design posed a “major issue”.
“[It’s] asking the established practices to compete with subsidised operators that are bulk billed down the road that have the government’s backing,” Dr Kelly said.
“If bulk billing was viable on the current rebate, we wouldn’t need to have a federal government intervention.”
He said the “real barrier” to bulk billing was an insufficient rebate that hadn’t kept up with inflation or accounted for longer consultations, not a shortage of clinics.
Funding existing practices would have delivered more bulk billed care “much more quickly” than building six new ones, he said.
When asked which practices he feared would be at genuine risk of closing or cutting their services, he said he would “never comment on specific practices, suffice to say, there would be significant concern that the viability of the established practices could be impacted by this intervention”.
HNECC PHN should publish how it planned to measure a genuine increase in services, rather than a relocation of existing ones, and report on the viability of surrounding practices as the initiative rolls out, Dr Kelly said.
“It’s really difficult to work with the government when they have an idea, and they want to run with it, and it becomes about politics rather than actual patient care,” he said.
TMR contacted Health Minister Mark Butler’s office for comment on why existing practices were excluded from the incentive, where the minimum of 60 GPs would be sourced from, and whether modelling of the impact of subsidies on surrounding clinics had been undertaken.
No response was received before deadline.
Expressions of interest open on 31 August and close on 14 September 2026. Successful organisations will receive a Request for Proposal the next week, with a final deadline of 12 October.
Clinics were expected to start operation between April and June 2027, the HNECC PHN said.
