EIGHTY-FIVE per cent of Canberra's GP practices are now taking new patients.
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The dramatic turnaround has some doctors speculating there may soon be an oversupply, a situation unthinkable two years ago when GP numbers were painfully low and waiting times excruciatingly high.
Fairfax Media polled 74 practices across the ACT and Queanbeyan and found just a dozen had their books closed.
Readers can now access the Find My Doctor tool on the Canberra Times website to find the names of practices taking new patients or with their books closed, as well as which ones bulk-bill or privately bill. Users can narrow searches down to their own suburb or nearby suburbs.
Dr David Poland said the figures confirmed what doctors had been reporting anecdotally in recent times.
''It's only happened in the last 12 months,'' he said.
''Some are already saying there's an oversupply.''
Dr Poland, from Brindabella Family Practice, said there had been an influx of international graduates.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has driven the extra supply of GPs by injecting almost $3 million into the sector, giving hundreds of thousands to some practices.
Having more doctors is expected to drive competition, causing waiting times to plummet and GPs to spend more on advertising and other initiatives to keep patients.
It may even prompt some to bulk-bill in a territory that has one of the worst bulk-billing rates in the country.
According to the poll, a dozen practices bulk-billed all patients while bulk- billing was done at the doctors' discretion at another 31 locations.
Doctors' discretion covers a range of perspectives on bulk-billing, from GPs who do it rarely and only for hardship cases to doctors who bulk-bill up to half their patients - many pension card holders and children.
Dr Abaul Syed from Gungahlin Medical Practice said some people were pleasantly surprised when told he bulk-billed.
He said five doctors had moved into practices in his area recently and said bulk- billing allowed him to create a business based on word-of-mouth advertising and higher patient turnover.
''I see patients a little bit more because they're happy to come back,'' Dr Syed said.
Chairman of ACT Medicare Local Rashmi Sharma said more GPs would mean fewer hectic days for doctors, particularly going into winter. She encouraged patients to become a regular at one practice.