Don't lose Canberra's GP gains, health advocate warns

While government investment in two walk-in centres and an influx of medical graduates had improved the ACT's GP numbers, a Productivity Commission report showed Canberra remained under serviced for GPs, Health Care Consumers Association executive director Darlene Cox said.

Her comments came after the commission's report on government services found the ACT continued to have fewer GPs than interstate, recording 73.2 per 100,000 people.

The figure increased by four from 2014-2015 but was still the lowest rate among all states and territories, and less than the 97.4 national rate.

ACT patients also waited longer to have an urgent appointment with GPs, as only 40.4 per cent saw a doctor within four hours compared to the 63.6 per cent national average, the report found.

Ms Cox said the ACT was under-serviced in terms of GP numbers, demonstrating the need for more competition in the local market.

"What we don't want to do is lose the ground we've made," she said.

The ACT government said Productivity Commission figures relating to funding, availability of GPs and low bulk billing rates reflected the impact of federal government policies.

ACT government infrastructure funding, an intern placement program, scholarships, and services to assist GPs to attend housebound and aged care patients had improved access to primary health care, a spokeswoman said.

The latest Productivity Commission report showed the availability of GPs per 100,000 people increased from 63.8 in 2012-13 to 72.8 in 2015-16.

A spokesman for new federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said bulk billing rates in the ACT were rising and that Medicare rebates for GPs were the same in all states and territories.

While bulk-billing rates increased to 60.3 per cent, a 2.2 per cent rise on last year, they remained well below the nation's 85.4 per cent average.

Patients in the ACT were less satisfied with their GPs, recording 90.1 per cent of people who believed their doctor always or often listened to them carefully, the second lowest figure and below the 91.6 per cent national average.

Ms Cox said the HCCA received feedback from patients that doctors did not listen to them enough.

However patient satisfaction rates at about 90 per cent were high, she said.

Ms Cox said there wasn't room for complacency, and that there was a need to learn about consumers' experience of GPs to identify where to improve.

Government spending on public hospitals was above the national average, the Productivity Commission report found.

ACT Health attributed this to the delivery of specialist services, such as open-heart surgery, some complex brain surgery, bone marrow transplantation and some high level care for babies offered that do not have the same economies of scale possible in larger jurisdictions.

Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said it was "alarming" the ACT Government did not provide emergency department waiting time data by the date needed by the Productivity Commission.

ACT Health said it had been reviewing its data governance and protocols, making it unable to meet certain data reporting deadlines, including for elements of the Productivity Commission report.

ACT Health's latest performance data were available in its 2015-16 annual report and the latest quarterly performance reports available on its website, its spokeswoman said.