The answer is somewhere around the $24.3 million mark, which is what the federal government dished out in grant money to save bulk billing practices in the area.
The Commonwealth has delivered on its promise to spend $24.3 million on three new bulk-billing GP clinics in the ACT, along with securing the future of Interchange Health Co-op at the Tuggeranong Family Medical Centre.
The Interchange Health Co-op was taken over by private operator ForHealth Group in April 2025, when it entered voluntary administration after not being able to meet operational costs.
“The Australian Government wants all Australians to get the health care they need when they need it, and we’re committed to supporting more bulk billing GPs in Canberra,” Health minister Mark Butler said.
Additional funding will also be awarded to the three new GP clinics to attract more GPs to the ACT as part of the $10.5 million Bulk Bulling GP Attraction Initiative.
The Tuggeranong Family Medical Centre’s issues are from over though, according to ACT independent senator David Pocock.
“The Interchange experience shows that we need to broaden our focus from just bulk billing to how we can bulk bill and value complex healthcare simultaneously,” Senator Pocock told The Medical Republic.
“While we desperately need more bulk billing in the ACT, we also need to recognise that the Medicare fee structure, even with the bulk billing incentives, does not make it easy to have a large patient load with complex health needs.”
Similar sentiments were shared by ACT AMA president Dr Kerrie Aust, who outlined how the issue with maintaining Canberra’s healthcare goes beyond supporting clinics.
“It will take some time for the clinics to be built and for them to recruit the GPs,” Dr Aust told TMR.
“So in the short term, we don’t expect to see a significant change in the service provision to Canberra.
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“We have had challenges attracting registrars, so we’re going to continue to have some workforce pressure and we need to have a look at some strategies to address that.
“We get very concerned about general practice clinics closing or not being able to provide services for a period of time, and any investment to support that is absolutely necessary.”
The RACGP said similar, arguing that the issue of low bulk-billing rates is not due to a lack of physical clinics, but rather a lack of effective Medicare rebates.
“Bulk billing rates went down when governments froze the Medicare rebate patients receive,” RACGP president Dr Michael Wright told TMR.
“We don’t need market interventions to cut patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
“We need a government which is prepared to cover the cost of their care.”
Mr Pocock also shared with TMR that he believed this new initiative did not match the needs of the Interchange Health Co-op’s patients.
“Before it went into administration, Interchange Health was a well-loved GP clinic in Canberra’s south that provided comprehensive support to people with complex health needs, including dozens of homeless Canberrans and over 700 people needing help with addiction,” the senator said.
“While the funding to keep Interchange afloat was very welcome, following the changeover in owners, I’ve heard from patients that they’re finding it harder to get an appointment that meets their needs and harder to get addiction treatment.”
