Overhaul funding now or risk a collapse of Australia’s hospitals – Australia’s GPs call for reform in tackling complex illness earlier

The General Practice Health of the Nation is an annual report conducted by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and should be an essential read for both professional and advocate alike. What this year’s findings have found is both startling and deeply encouraging. There is a way to tackle the mounting crisis being felt by the country’s hospitals, and it’s what many have been saying for some time; treat illness earlier.

GP medicine – the front door of a nation’s healthcare

A key strategy to mitigating the ongoing costly polycrisis, it’s recently been reported that NSW tax-payers are paying $1.2 million a day for those that do not need to be there, is to do the utmost in policy and funding to ensure they never need to present to hospital at all. GPs across the country maintain that they are a core tool in fighting the mounting health crisis. But while funding for hospitals has sky-rocketed, government GP funding has stalled. Changing that, they say, could be the difference to correcting the potential disastrous route the country’s public hospital systems are seemingly on.

“The 2025 Health of the Nation report”, RACQP’s president, Dr Michael Wright, says, “demonstrated the essential role of the GPs as the heart of our healthcare system.” Dr Wright shapes the place GP care, “as the front door of Australia’s healthcare system.” Across demographics, states and way of life, GPs have been the first point of call for people when concerned about their health. However, the report highlights some trends that GPs are contending with, “complexity of care is increasing.”

“[Complexity] This is the number one challenge identified by GPs, as we witness growing rates of chronic disease, high rates of mental health presentations and an ageing growing population.”

Preventative opportunity – multidisciplinary models

Dr Wright takes special care to note that multidisciplinary care and preventative care are not only “cornerstones of general practice” but that GPs are already working in their cross-sectional teams and are  “enthusiastic to participate in more of these models of care. However, “workforce shortages and gaps in funding and infrastructure remain.”

“GPs are central for these models [multidisciplinary] of care to function effectively.”

Australia desperately needs preventative care measures enthusiastically embraced by policy-makers and funding models. In order for hospital strain to start to be eased, the numbers of those presenting early, oftentimes with preventable illnesses, or illnesses that have progressed without care, must be supported.

The report shows that over the past year, the cases of those even presenting to GPs is complicating, “increasingly complex care [is] provided by GPs…shining a light on the ongoing disparities within our health system.”

Disconnect in funding

It is in the assessment and discussion of this data drawn from the thousands of GPs surveyed, and the time and cases they have worked on over the last twelve months, that the trend of complexity is not only cemented but the corresponding disconnect of funding becomes glaring unavoidable.

“While per person funding for general practice has remained relatively unchanged in the decade up to 2023–24, hospital funding has increased by almost one third.”

There is much hope to be found within the report, Dr Wright notes that, “a record number of junior doctors entering the Australian General Practice Training Program in recent years.” It is worthwhile for government and industry leaders to be aware of the resource on hand, and to pivot accordingly to supporting these new practitioners in being able to do their utmost in providing care, especially in complexity, to safeguard hospitals for those presenting with acute and unforeseen needs. 

Accessible and affordable preventative care, that GPs are uniquely positioned to facilitate, must be central to policy makers and funding decisions immediately. If the tide is to be turned on the significantly reported on crisis of hospitals, and the exorbitant costs of hospital that have been growing in burden on the tax-payer, effective pre-emptive policy and funding is not only a moral imperative to the nation, but a financially astute strategy as well.

Effectively addressing current challenges

While not overtly naming the crisis that has been coined “bed block”, Dr Wright is fervent in his view that the data of the report not only, “further demonstrates the essential role of GPs as the heart of our healthcare system”, but directly points to, “what is needed to address current challenges.”

The extensive data collected in the report is unequivocal, Wright notes, “There is increasing evidence that properly funded access to high-quality general practice is the solution to many of our current healthcare challenges.”

Particularly for aged care leaders and experts, there is considerable lived experience and understanding that can attest to the veracity of, “there is no substitute for the quality care you get from a GP who knows you and your history.”

Cross-sector implications

In a clear indication of cross-sector, cross-disciplinary strategy that must be at the core of government policy, understanding the evidenced benefit for seniors across Australia, to be able to routinely be able to access their GP is a baseline. In affordability and logistics, provisioning the ageing cohort to have ready access to preventative care could have staggeringly beneficial benefits to safeguarding senior health and dignity in the immediate and national expenditure on health for future generations. 

This logic draws to bear the increasingly worrying situation of the Support at Home scheme, and the likelihood of the co-payment scheme incapacitating seniors from being able to pay for home care help to access GPs. Increasing difficulty to access GP help is arguably short-sighted.

Funding stall

According to government data, 2023-2024 saw the government spend $11.5 billion on home care and support services, that’s roughly $418 per capita in Australia. Now looking at the funding per capita of general practice medicine and then hospital funding, and the arguable ineffectiveness of spending comes into question.

The 2025 Health of the Nation reports the figures in blunt simplicity, GP practice care is funded at “$440 per person”, while the government has increased hospital spending to, “$3649 per person”.

The RACGP puts the data first, “Since 2014–15, per person spend on hospitals has increased by more than 30%, while general practice funding has remained virtually unchanged.”

Strategic policy for a sustainable future

For seniors, for youth, for all in-between, it is incumbent on policy-makers to leverage the data presented by professional, verified and reality-centred experts to point policy in effective, reasoned and evidenced directions. Hospital strain must be reduced. Aged care sector demand must be reduced. Quality, dignity and sustainability must be central pillars of Australia’s health and aged-care systems. 

Professionals across the gamut of GP, hospital and aged care are not oblivious or un-caring of the finite pool of public money. More so, due to this awareness, professionals, advocates and Australians across all walks of life, are insistent, and deserve, for public money to be spent well; With strategy, pre-emptive clout and decisive results for sustainable tax thresholds, and quality and dignity of human life.