New AIHW data also reveals how many people used subsidised allied health and specialist services.
About eight in 10 Australians had at least one Medicare-subsidised GP attendance in 2023-24, new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals.
The number (84%) represents a small decrease from 88% between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the report showed.
The report’s authors cited a number of potential reasons for changes in the rates of GP services over time, including the inclusion and cessation of additional telehealth and covid vaccination MBS items provided in response to the pandemic.
Differing access to appropriate and affordable care for vulnerable population groups, and the availability of bulk billing to patients, such as increased bulk-billing incentives for GPs during the covid pandemic, the report said.
Attendance dropped to 85% in 2020–21 as covid restrictions were introduced in response to the pandemic but increased to 90% of Australians in 2021–22, which coincided with the expansion and uptake of Medicare-subsidised telehealth and covid-19 vaccinations, the report said.
“The covid-19 pandemic had a severe impact on various aspects of everyday life, including health care,” the authors wrote.
“The pandemic demonstrated how a health crisis can drastically influence the delivery of primary care services within the community, as seen by changes in consultation styles with patients and the uptake of digital health advancements.”
Key changes included:
- Telehealth in primary care during the pandemic was an essential measure that enabled continuity of care. Between March 2020 and March 2022, around 17 million Australians used over 100 million telehealth consultations.
- Many of the Medicare Benefits Schedule telehealth items introduced on a temporary basis in response to the pandemic have been made permanent, including telehealth services provided by GPs, medical practitioners, nurse practitioners, participating midwives, and allied health providers.
- The introduction of electronic prescribing allowed continuity of care as well as reduced administrative burden for health care providers through more effective management of prescription refill requests. As of April 2024, more than 219 million electronic prescriptions had been issued since May 2020 by around 86,000 GP and nurse practitioner prescribers. E-prescribing is now widely available and forms part of the broader digital health and medicines safety framework in Australia.
“The effects of the covid pandemic also highlighted the need to further investigate ways to support all Australians’ access to primary care services,” the authors wrote.
“The use of telehealth services and digital health information was found to be least accessible to those from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, those with low literacy levels, low socioeconomic status and people living in rural and remote areas.”
The update to the Medicare-subsidised GP, allied health and specialist healthcare across local areas report also found four in 10 Australians received at least one Medicare-subsidised diagnostic imaging service or allied health service attendance in 2023-24.
And one in three Australians received at least one Medicare-subsidised specialist attendance in the same period.
The report showed a little over one in 20 Australians (6.9%) received at least one Medicare-subsidised Nursing and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker service in 2023–24. This peaked at 8.3% in 2020–21.
It also examined the differences in attendances for people based on where they live – in metropolitan and regional Primary Health Network areas.
Between 2017–18 and 2023–24, people living in metropolitan and regional PHN areas received similar proportions of Medicare-subsidised services except for services from nursing and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, where a higher proportion of people living in regional PHN areas accessed services.
A higher proportion of people living in metropolitan PHN areas had a Medicare-subsidised general practitioner (GP) attendance after-hours in 2023–24 (19%), compared with those living in regional PHN areas (9.2%).
There has been a decline over time in after-hours attendances, so that in 2017–18, 28% of people living in metropolitan PHN areas and 16% of those living in regional PHN areas had an after-hours attendance
The full report is available here.
