Enticed here by the reasonable expectation that the nation's capital provides a comfortable, affluent and educated lifestyle, they make inquiries to find a doctor and discover an all-too-familiar mantra: sorry, books are shut; no new patients are being taken on.

Similarly, same-day or next-day appointment requests get a sympathetic, but disappointing, no unless it is a serious condition and involves a child or the elderly. The option, usually, is to book an appointment a week in advance.

The implication is that the bewildered new Canberra citizen who needs immediate medical attention ends up getting treatment in an emergency room, putting further strain on our already groaning hospitals.

There's nothing new in the knowledge that Canberra has a GP shortage, but the extent of the problem detailed in official records has never reflected the anecdotal evidence of the dire situation the nation's capital continues to face.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the ACT has the highest proportion of medical practitioners in Australia. But those numbers, and those of the federal Health Department, include doctors who are not practising, or who are working in other areas such as Commonwealth departments. And when the statistics also include the growing number of part-time doctors in Canberra, we have a ratio of doctors-to-population that is less than that of a rural town.

And as our Sunday Canberra Times investigation confirms, the availability of GPs is far worse than official numbers imply.

The reality is, Canberra needs a better assessment. The Federal Government must take into account the variables of non-practising GPs. It must get back to grass-roots evidence. And it should reclassify the ACT so that it qualifies to attract overseas doctors under the ''district of workplace shortage'' scheme.

Under this scheme, rural or remote areas with low GP ratios can employ overseas doctors who must commit to 10 years in that area to qualify for a Medicare provider number.

Much of Canberra, classified as an inner metropolitan area, does not qualify.

But for a decentralised city widely dubbed the Bush Capital, surely the nation's Government must reconsider and take action to ensure the nation's capital lives up to its status.