76% of survey respondents ranked GPs as the most important practitioners for themselves and their families. But GPs need to simplify their patients’ care journey, the insurer says.
GPs are being used more than ever but scoring lowest on making patients feel cared for and listened to, according to the first part of NAB Health’s Insights Report 2026-27, which surveyed approximately 1000 people.
GP use increased from 78% in 2022 to 85% in 2026, reaching 98% among Australians aged 65 and over, compared with 75% among those aged 25 to 34.
RACGP president Dr Michael Wright told The Medical Republic the attendance figure was a pleasant “surprise”, and that the report reinforced the “central role of general practice”.
Patient satisfaction with GPs’ quality of care, advice, and treatment reached 8.1 out of 10 in 2026, the highest since 2022, when it was 8.2 – a rating higher than that of private hospital professionals, specialist doctors, and psychologists and psychiatrists.
Though the report warned these comparisons should not be read as an “overall ranking or league table”, but rather as an indication of where each sector could strengthen patients’ experiences.
However, GPs scored lowest among health professionals on making patients feel cared for as people (77%), and on listening to patients and including them in decisions without rushing (76%).
Dr Wright said time pressure often prevented GPs from covering everything patients wanted to discuss, but emphasised the importance of patients feeling welcome and acknowledged.
The report said GPs could make care feel “easier to access, less rushed and [patients] better supported before and after the consultation” by avoiding “one size fits all” assumptions, maintaining eye contact and focus, and making more effort to understand patients and their lifestyles.
They did, however, perform best at explaining things in an easily understandable way.
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Dentists remained the most missed service over the past year, followed by GPs – with 17% of patients reportedly missing routine, preventive GP care due to cost, waiting times, uncertainty, or low perceived urgency.
Asked why they did not visit GPs more often than they had over the past year, 36% of patients surveyed said they were self-managing, 23% didn’t have time, and 20% couldn’t get an appointment.
Delayed care presented a “whole-of-practice issue”, the report said, affirming the need for “strengthening recalls, following up missed appointments, and “making prevention, review and follow-up feel normal; rather than optional”.
Almost 70% of patients reported being bulk billed at their last GP visit, up from 58% in 2025. Yet 43% of respondents still reported GP services had become more expensive over the previous 12 months – though this figure was lower than in the previous two years.
“It was really positive to see that the number of people who aren’t seeing a GP due to cost continues to drop,” Dr Wright said.
GPs scored higher for value for money than in the previous two years, at 77% in 2026.
However, 16% of respondents said they had switched GPs in the past two to three years due to dissatisfaction – the highest rate among any health professional in the study.
Provider switching, the report said, showed “loyalty should not be taken for granted” and was “often the visible endpoint of earlier friction”.
One example was patients being required to attend and pay for a blood test result that could have been emailed.
Dr Wright said the webinar, which he was part of, also raised a concern that, despite AI’s many positive uses in consultations, most patients still wanted to be asked for consent before their GP used it.
The report proposed five “practical prompts” rather than “universal prescriptions”, including simplifying the care journey, communicating in plain language, establishing clear guidance and follow-up, tailoring care to individual patients, and disclosing likely out-of-pocket costs.
“Practices do not need to solve every barrier at once, but they do need to know which barriers – practical, emotional, financial or personal – matter most for the patients they serve,” the report read.
