Administrative workload has emerged as the top factor causing GPs to plan on leaving the profession, according to the RACGP’s yearly survey.
A reduction in compliance-related paperwork could encourage two-thirds of the GPs planning on retirement to keep practising – a potentially vital number given the projected shortfall of 4000 GPs in Australia by 2030.
Early findings from the RACGP’s annual Health of the Nation Report indicate that the proportion of GPs concerned about their administrative workload had increased from 60% in 2023 to 70% in 2024.
It will also be the second year running where regulatory and compliance burden is listed as the top reason for GPs who are considering stopping practising.
Up to 66% of this cohort said a reduction in compliance would encourage them to stay with general practice.
“The reality is that GPs like me are forced to spend hours on compliance and reporting for overly complex Medicare rules and filling out long government forms that don’t integrate with practice software,” RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said.
“It’s a waste of the extensive medical training, skills and experience Australia’s GPs have.”
Related
Some of the biggest culprits, she said, were PBS authorities, hospital referral templates and the lack of interoperability between Centrelink, the NDIS and the DVA.
“Imagine how much extra time we’d have if we cut the red tape,” Dr Higgins told The Medical Republic.
While the problem is not necessarily getting worse, she said it was stagnating.
Compounding matters is the fact that the wheels of government turn ever-so-slowly.
Close to one year on from the Department of Health and Aged Care quietly removing the ability for telehealth patients to verbally consent to bulk billing and three months since the government passed reforms to scrap the requirement for an ‘approved form’ when bulk billing, there’s still no seamless digital solution.
