Long waiting lists and rising costs are pushing more complex care into general practice, with GPs increasingly taking on work traditionally performed by specialists and hospitals.
Nearly nine in 10 GPs are now treating conditions traditionally managed by non-GP specialists, as lengthy waiting lists, rising healthcare costs and increasingly complex patients force general practice to shoulder more of the health system’s workload.
The RACGP’s 2026 Health of the Nation report revealed that 89% of GPs were managing conditions typically treated by non-GP specialists, while 76% were providing care usually delivered in hospital emergency departments or urgent care clinics.
The findings highlight the expanding scope of general practice as GPs respond to increasingly complex patients, lengthy specialist waiting lists and rising out-of-pocket costs.
RACGP president Dr Michael Wright told The Medical Republic that the shift was being driven partly by necessity, as GPs stepped in to fill growing gaps across the healthcare system.
“As more and more of our patients are presenting with complex health conditions, GPs are treating more complex care by demand,” he said.
“As our population is aging, more people are living with multiple chronic health conditions, more mental health conditions, and GPs are picking up the challenge to deal with that.”
Access to non-GP specialists, particularly through public hospitals, had deteriorated over time, leaving patients facing lengthy delays or substantial out of pocket costs, he said.
“GPs are almost by necessity providing more of that care in our practices and trying to keep people well and try to avoid them having to need to go and use those other services.”
Dr Wright pointed to increasingly sophisticated diabetes management, mental healthcare, cardiovascular treatments, weight-loss medications and ADHD as examples of conditions and treatments expanding the clinical responsibilities of GPs.
The rapid evolution of treatments was also changing decisions about when patients needed specialist referrals.
“Whereas previously we might have thought, ‘I’m not quite sure how to manage that’, we are now saying, ‘You know what, we are capable of providing this care’,” he told TMR.
GPs were also finding new ways to collaborate with specialists, particularly in areas such as dermatology, rheumatology and respiratory medicine, where prescribing restrictions or access to treatments such as biologics could complicate patient management.
Dr Wright said there was increasing interest in more efficient arrangements that maximised the expertise of both GPs and non-GP specialists.
But the growing scope of general practice was creating additional demands on doctors’ time, training and resources.
The report found that 72% of GPs identified increasing patient complexity as their biggest challenge, while 66% said they were spending more time with patients than in previous years.
Average consultation lengths have risen from 17.7 minutes in 2022 to 19.8 minutes in 2026, an increase of approximately 12% in four years.
Female GPs reported spending an average of 21.3 minutes with patients, compared with 17.6 minutes for male GPs.
Dr Wright said the figures demonstrated how far modern general practice had moved beyond the traditional notion of six-minute medicine.
“If you look at the stats, you can see that for female GPs, that average consult is over 20 minutes,” he told TMR.
“So what Medicare calls a long consult is for our female GPs on average a standard consult patient, and that’s where we really need to get Medicare to catch up.”
The report found that increasing complexity of patient presentations was the leading reason GPs were spending longer with patients, nominated by 49% of respondents, followed by the complexity of care being provided (48%) and greater mental health-related presentations (41%).
Dr Wright said Medicare had failed to adequately recognise the time required to manage increasingly complicated clinical presentations.
“Medicare rebates haven’t kept pace with the cost of care, and the balance of the schedule hasn’t remunerated those longer, more complex consultations at the same level as it does the short, quick ones,” he told TMR.
“That’s the bit that we really need to change.”
The RACGP is calling for a 40% increase in Medicare patient rebates for longer consultations, arguing that current funding arrangements disadvantage GPs providing comprehensive care for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
Dr Wright said additional government investment in general practice was already delivering improvements in access and affordability, but greater support was needed for longer consultations.
“That’s where the difficult care, the care that takes time, the care that GPs have to deal with,” he said.
“We need the time and the remuneration to provide it.”
The expanding scope of general practice also raised questions about whether GP education and training could keep pace with new clinical responsibilities, particularly as governments moved to enable GPs to diagnose and manage conditions such as ADHD.
Dr Wright said adapting to new treatments and clinical developments was already an essential part of medical training and continuing professional development.
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However, he emphasised that expanding scope did not mean every GP should be expected to manage every condition.
Part of good medical practice was recognising when additional expertise was required, whether through another GP with a particular interest or a non-GP specialist.
“I think that’s part of the training of medical training, of understanding uncertainty, the importance of a diagnosis, but also recognising our own limitations,” he told TMR.
Workforce capacity would also be critical to supporting the profession’s growing responsibilities.
The report found Australia’s GP workforce had increased to 41,862 in 2025, with the number of full-time equivalent GPs rising from 29,976 in 2024 to 30,476 in 2025.
Dr Wright welcomed the increase in training numbers and renewed interest in general practice as a career but cautioned that GPs could not meet growing demand alone.
“We do need to work in multidisciplinary teams, and that’s going to take some additional funding for practices as well, so we can better coordinate that care within a practice rather than fragmenting care,” he said.
The report found that 48% of practising GPs currently worked in multidisciplinary care teams, highlighting the growing importance of collaboration in managing complex patients.
However, Dr Wright warned that the proliferation of services focused on individual diseases or particular models of care risked further fragmenting the healthcare system.
He argued that multidisciplinary care should be coordinated through general practices, with GPs retaining responsibility for patients’ overall healthcare needs.
“We need to make sure that we create an environment where that team-based approach from within a practice, from a GP who knows you, is the default,” he said.
Despite the pressures, the report found growing optimism within the profession.
GP job satisfaction increased from 71% in 2025 to 76% in 2026, while the proportion of GPs willing to recommend general practice as a career rose from 47% to 54%.
Patient satisfaction also remained high, with 94% reporting their GP always or often showed respect and 91% saying their GP listened carefully.
Dr Wright said the findings demonstrated that GPs were successfully adapting to the increasing complexity of healthcare while maintaining high standards of patient care.
“We’ve shown that we are capable of providing increasingly complex care to people,” he told TMR.
“We’re providing very cost-effective care. We’re expanding our scope. We’re increasing our training numbers, and patient satisfaction and quality of care remains incredibly high.”
But he said funding reform remained essential if general practice was to continue absorbing work traditionally undertaken elsewhere in the health system.
“For too long, Medicare rebates haven’t kept pace with the cost of care, and so that’s put so much pressure on practices,” he said.
“Investment in GPs is the most cost-effective investment we can make in the health system.”
See the RACGP’s 2026 Health of the Nation report here.
