GP access in aged care: What the AMA’s position statement means for providers

Australia’s peak medical body has put residential aged care providers on notice. In a position statement released on 9 June, the Australian Medical Association called for urgent reform to fix what it describes as a system actively preventing GPs from delivering continuous care to residents. 

The implications? They go directly to how providers manage risk, compliance, and quality outcomes.

Spotlighting the structural failures

AMA Federal President Dr Danielle McMullen was unambiguous: “The current system is badly fragmented and, as is unfortunately often the case, it is patients who suffer as a result, with the system failing residents when they are at their most vulnerable.”

The statement identifies three structural failures driving the breakdown: 

1. Chronic underfunding of GP visits to aged care facilities. 
2. Regulatory barriers embedded in the current Aged Care Act and quality standards.
3. Poor interoperability between digital health systems. 

Together, these make regular GP attendance financially unviable, pushing care toward reactive crisis management rather than planned, preventive treatment.

For providers, the operational consequences are measurable 

The AMA links the absence of GP-led preventive care directly to unnecessary hospital transfers and emergency admissions – outcomes that affect star ratings, trigger regulatory attention, and strain relationships with local health networks. 

“The absence of preventive GP-led care results in many unnecessary hospital transfers and admissions,” Dr McMullen said. “This places pressure on public hospitals and exacerbates problems such as ambulance ramping.”

The AMA’s reform asks are specific 

It calls for a review of the Aged Care Act and quality standards to: 

• Improve GP access
• Build investment in integrated care models around GP-led collaborative frameworks 
• Create fair funding for GP visits
• Modernise digital infrastructure to support interoperability, and 
• More sustainable workforce strategies. 

It also identifies adequate registered nurse presence as a prerequisite for making GP-led models work at the facility level.

What this means for aged care leaders

The statement is worth reading as more than a medical advocacy document. The AMA is framing GP access as a systemic design failure, one that providers can’t resolve alone, but one where their operational and governance decisions directly shape resident outcomes in the meantime.

The pressure on the sector to demonstrate proactive, planned care is only increasing. Care minute requirements, the new Aged Care Act, and revised quality standards have all raised the bar for what regulators expect from providers. An operating model that structurally excludes the resident’s usual GP is increasingly difficult to defend.