Everyone’s worried about the GP workforce. West-of-Sydney PHNs are joining forces to address it.
Three primary health networks in Sydney’s west have come together to tackle the looming GP workforce shortage.
Western Sydney PHN (WentWest), South Western Sydney PHN and Blue Mountains Nepean PHN (Wentworth Health) are developing a five-year plan to increase the number of GPs in an area where the population is projected to rise by a third over the next decade.
The PHNs, which cover a huge geographical area to the west, said the Greater Western Sydney Primary Care Workforce Strategy was brought about to address an ageing GP workforce, retention and recruitment challenges, and an “inequitable” distribution of health practitioners across the area.
South Western Sydney, Western Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountain GPs have the highest bulk billing rate in the country (94%, 93% & 91% respectively in the first quarter of 2025/26).
As older GPs retire, will new recruits carry on the bulk billing tradition? And does it make it harder to recruit them to these areas?
TMR asked all three PHNs about this, but none responded in time for publication.
However, it has been noted that these high rates are linked to the high areas of disadvantage encompassed by these PHNs.
“There is going to be a clear socio-economic gradient about the access to the co-payments, because GPs are really responsive to the needs of their patients in their community, and in areas where patients can’t afford co-payments, then that’s where GPs do provide most bulk billing,” Dr Tim Senior, chair of RACGP Specific Interests Poverty and Health, told News GP earlier this year.
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The South West Sydney PHN’s most populous local government areas are disadvantaged compared to the national average, according to IRSAD scores compiled from the latest ABS census data.
There are 1.08 million people living in the area covered by South Western Sydney PHN, a population growing at 11.86%. Its 6190 square kilometres includes more densely populated LGAs like Liverpool (IRSAD score 968, compared to the national average of 1000, population 233,446), Fairfield (IRSAD 885, population 208,475), and Canterbury Bankstown (IRSAD 966, population 371,006), with a much smaller number of people in its better-off, semi-rural towns like Bowral in the southern highlands. Just over half (51%) of the residents covered by this PHN speak a language other than English at home.
Among the Western Sydney PHN area, it’s 45%. This PHN covers a population of 1.07 million people, growing at 13%, and living in an area just over 766km. Western Sydney LGAs are a mix of just above and below the national average, but within them contain cities like Blacktown (IRSAD score of 965, population 50,961), Auburn (score of 908, population 39,333), Guildford (895, population 24,091) and Mt Druitt (910, pop 16,986).
Of the three neighbouring PHNs, Blue Mountains Nepean stands apart demographically.
It has the fewest number of people (just under 400,000, growing at only 7.55%), living in two quite different locales – the city and some suburbs of Penrith, a growing cosmopolitan centre with a large teaching hospital, and then spread out across the remainder of the 9000 square kilometres of small towns, bush and farmland.
The urban areas of Penrith, St. Mary’s and St Clair, taking up a small corner on the edge of the PHN map, are all relatively disadvantaged (IRSAD scores of 939, 906 and 976 respectively). The Blue Mountains LGA, population 78,121, has an IRSAD score of 1042 and Hawkesbury LGA, population 67,207 has a score of 1008. Lithgow (mainly rural, on the other side of the mountains) has an IRSAD of 912, and a population of only 20,842.
Only 13.9% speak a language other than English at home in the Nepean Blue Mountains PHN catchment, according to a recent CALD needs assessment (with the majority of those in Penrith).
TMR asked the PHNs how the partnership would work with such different demographics and needs, and how would achieve their goal of addressing inequity in the way that health practitioners are distributed.
They did not respond in time for publication.
“Developing a joint workforce strategy will enable a data-driven, evidence-based and strategic approach to identifying and tackling challenges within the primary care workforce specific to the GWS region,” said Amy Prince, acting CEO at South Western Sydney PHN.
“This is not just a numbers issue – it’s a people issue. We need to make primary care a more attractive and sustainable career path. That means better support, better training and better pathways for professionals at every stage of their journey,” said SWSPHN acting CEO Ms Price.
TMR asked all three PHNs how they intended to do this, but a response had not been received at time of publication.
