As waiting times for doctor appointments increase, clinics close their books to new patients, and mental health presentations rise, the GP sector is calling for greater government funding for the primary health sector.
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An increase in the number of patients visiting GPs for psychological reasons has risen dramatically over the pandemic.
In 2021 the most common reasons for visiting a GP include mental health, womens health, musculoskeletal reasons, heart and lung conditions, as well as conditions such as diabetes, thyroid and obesity.
Up to 70 per cent of GPs listed psychological reasons in their top three reasons for patient visits, which rose nine percent in four years.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price said mental health concern was part of a longer-term trend.
"For the fifth consecutive year, psychological conditions, including sleep disturbance and depression, were the most reported reasons for patient presentations," she said.
"As the first port of call for many patients with mental health issues, GPs play a vital ongoing role over many months or even years...The scale of the task has only grown over the last 12 months. To help these patients, we need new Medicare items for longer mental health consultations so we can really get to the bottom of what is going on."
Ms Price said in the General Practice Health of the Nation report that the sector needed genuine funding reform.
"A great place to start would be putting general practice on a more sustainable, long-term financial footing," she said.
"At a time when we are needed by our communities more than ever, the share of total government healthcare spend for primary care is in decline."
She said of the total health budget, general practice received less than 8 per cent of the funding pool, yet the sector provides more than twice the number of care a year than hospitals, at one sixth of the cost.
Further, that a majority of GP patients presented with multiple health conditions.
"To better help patients with multiple conditions who are at heightened risk of ending up in hospital, we must change how we structure general practice funding. As things currently stand, Medicare discourages GPs from treating almost one condition in the same consultation.
"It is vital ..to incentivise longer consultations to support comprehensive care by GPs."
The report also found average appointment time was 18 minutes.
