By Arielle Richards , Rachael Knowles
General practitioners (GPs) are spending more time with patients, treating increasingly complex conditions and working across specialist remits, according to a new report.
The Royal Australasian College of GPs (RACGP) is calling on the federal government to increase Medicare patient rebates for longer consultations, after its latest Health of the Nation report found that two-thirds of GPs were spending more time with patients than in previous years.
In 2026, the average consultation length increased to 19.8 minutes per patient, up from 19.7 minutes in 2025 and 17.7 minutes in 2022.
Over 70 per cent of the 2,766 Australian GPs surveyed in the report identified increasingly complex care as their biggest issue — driven by growing rates of chronic disease, high rates of mental health presentations and an ageing population.
Psychological presentations were the leading reason patients sought care in 2025, reported by 67 per cent of practising GPs.
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The figure has remained high over the past decade, rising from 61 per cent in 2017 to a high of 72 per cent in 2023 following the COVID-19 pandemic.
One GP quoted in the study said there had been a "marked rise" in anxiety, depression, trauma-related disorders and social isolation across all age groups, especially among young adults and working-age populations.
"Many presentations are linked to financial stress, housing insecurity, workplace pressures, and relationship breakdowns rather than purely medical causes."
More patients were presenting with complex psycho-social needs, requiring longer consultations, continuity of care, and multidisciplinary support, which was "difficult to sustain within current funding models".
Head of the Health Economics Group at Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos, told SBS News GPs respond to a range of mental health conditions.
She said they most commonly see a "breadth of severity" in "high prevalence" conditions such as anxiety and depression.
"For a lot of GPs, the commitment is to do the best they can for the person sitting in front of them ... they absolutely want to do the best they can, but the problems they're confronted with often aren't something you can easily solve in five minutes," she said.
The health economist said part of the pressure on GPs is a lack of services for the "missing middle" — patients whose needs sit between what a GP and a specialised service provides.
"These are people who are not mild, and they're not very severe .... they're in that missing middle," she said.
"Their care often falls to GPs, but their care is quite complex in terms of the things they may have to deal with."
She said GPs play a crucial role in helping those seeking support for their mental health to navigate a "fragmented" health system.
The report also found GPs were helping alleviate pressure on hospital services and bridge gaps in the healthcare system.
In 2026, almost 90 per cent of GPs managed conditions usually treated by non-GP specialists, and 76 per cent managed conditions typically treated in emergency departments or urgent care settings.
The proportion of patients bulk billed for all GP visits rose to 63 per cent in 2026, up from 56 per cent in each of the previous two years, which the report attributed to increased Medicare incentives.
RACGP president Dr Michael Wright said increased government investment in Medicare to $489 per person in 2026 was an important recognition of general practice's role in Australian healthcare, but that more investment was needed to cover longer consultations.
"The challenge is that the Medicare system has not kept pace with the realities of modern general practice, and funding does not adequately support the time required to provide the care patients need."
The rate of Australians delaying seeking healthcare due to cost fell from 8.8 per cent in 2025 to 7.7 per cent in 2026. Young adults aged 25 to 34 remain the most likely to delay care because of cost.
Mihalopoulos said it remains a "real problem".
"We should not be delaying seeking care for our health, because everything depends on our good health," she said.
She said while bulk billing incentives have contributed to increased presentations, Australia is not "100 per cent there yet".
"Getting people into care earlier and addressing their needs is crucial."
For the first time, women GPs reported less satisfaction with their jobs than their male counterparts, with the proportion of female GPs recommending the profession to younger colleagues dropping from 53 per cent in 2025 to 48 per cent in 2026.
In 2026, female GPs saw a higher proportion of patients presenting with complex psycho-social issues, mental health concerns and women's health matters, and spent more time with patients on average than their male counterparts.
Racism was also identified as part of some GPs' experience, with more than 30 per cent agreeing that they had witnessed racism towards patients within the broader healthcare system, and 19 per cent reporting personally experiencing racism in the past year.
While 6 per cent of GPs said they had personally experienced racism from a colleague within their practice, 65 per cent said they were confident in addressing or challenging racism from patients or colleagues within their practice and the broader healthcare system.
