If you want a clear view of where Australian primary care is heading, start inside the consult room. According to the RACGP’s latest Health of the Nation report, mental health has become the centre of gravity in general practice. What was once a subset of care is now core business, and it is reshaping how practices operate, staff and sustain themselves.
For practice owners, executives and healthcare entrepreneurs, this is not only a clinical shift. It is a structural shift with deep implications for business models, margins and workforce planning.
Mental health is now a dominant driver of demand
More than seven in ten GPs say mental health is among the most common reasons patients seek care, with female GPs reporting even higher rates. Australia’s broader burden mirrors this trend. More than eight million Australians have experienced mental illness, with anxiety and depression leading presentations.
Inside practices, the pattern is unmistakable. Consults are longer. Presentations are more emotionally complex. Access to psychologists and community mental health services remains delayed or unaffordable. These pressures are only likely to increase with upcoming changes which will enable GPs in Queensland and other states to diagnose and treat adult ADHD.
Read more: Queensland GPs to diagnose adult ADHD: what the shift means for your practice
As a result, GPs have become the first line for mental health in Australia, often without the time, funding or team structures designed for this level of complexity.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright captures the sentiment across the profession, saying, “Fifty seven percent of GPs identified mental health as an emerging issue causing concern for the future.”
This trend is pushing practices to rethink everything from appointment lengths to billing strategy.
Cost barriers are reshaping patient behaviour and GP workload
Affordability of care is another major concern identified in the Report, which found that one in five Australians who needed mental health care either delayed or avoided it because of cost. When specialist or allied health services are out of reach, patients turn to the clinician who remains accessible and trusted: their GP.
But short consults, the long standing bedrock of general practice billing, are poorly suited to complex mental health discussions. This mismatch leaves GPs carrying both the clinical load and the operational consequences, including:
- Longer appointments reducing daily patient volume
- Increased emotional labour and burnout risk
- Pressure to deliver unfunded care within bulk billing models
For practice owners, the financial equation is becoming harder to balance.
Funding has not kept pace with clinical reality
The RACGP has been clear. Despite recent reforms which aim to further incentivise bulk billing by GPs, current Medicare rebates still do not reflect the time or complexity required to deliver meaningful mental health care in general practice.
And the RACGP is calling for higher rebates for long consultations and mental health items.
As Dr Wright states, “You cannot provide the mental health care patients need in six minutes.”
For many practice owners, aligning billing models with actual consult time is moving from desirable to essential.
What this means for practice strategy
The Health of the Nation findings mark a turning point for business minded healthcare leaders:
- Appointment design is changing: Longer consults need to be positioned as a core business strategy.
- Team based care will expand: Mental health nurses, social workers and care coordinators can help distribute workload where funding models allow.
- Billing structures must evolve: Mixed billing and value focused consult models are becoming increasingly necessary.
- Clinician wellbeing is a business imperative: Emotional load must be factored into workforce planning and retention.
- Advocacy will grow: Sustainable funding for long consults is essential for the sector’s future.
The bottom line
Mental health is now part of the everyday fabric of Australian general practice, yet the systems supporting it from Medicare rebates to workforce structures have not kept up.
If Australia wants a strong mental health system, it needs a strong GP workforce. That workforce needs funding models, business systems and operational structures that reflect what is happening in consult rooms today.
General practice is carrying the weight of the nation’s mental health. It is time the business of healthcare recognised this reality.
Sources:
Clinical & consumer healthMarket intelligence & industry trendsPolicy reformsPolicy, compliance & governance
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