Bendigo health workers warn GP shortage behind high rate of people not seeing doctor when needed

New statistics show 19 per cent of people in the Murray Primary Health Network area needed to see a doctor in 2017-18 but didn't.

Workers blamed a shortage of general practitioners across rural and regional Victoria for the figures.

Bendigo is part of the network, which reaches up to the NSW and South Australian borders.

The rate was the fourth highest among Australian Primary Health Networks.

The Australian average was 15.2 per cent.

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Bendigo general practitioner Doctor Kirby White said not seeing a doctor when needed could cause a deterioration in chronic diseases.

Or it could mean a person with an acute condition was unnecessarily seen in a hospital emergency department, she said.

Dr White said a lot of Bendigo's doctors were booked out, without available appointments.

She attributed this to a significant lack of doctors in regional and rural Victoria.

Dr White said Bendigo was an expanding region, but hadn't seen much increase in terms of medical clinics and general practitioners.

"It's not uncommon for doctors to be booked out two to three weeks in advance," she said.

Dr White said the Medicare freeze put in place in 2013 meant doctors could no longer bulk bill to stay financially afloat.

Read more: Patients 'dramatically at risk' in Bendigo's GP shortage

Dr White said those clinics that bulk billed or mixed billed mostly had closed books.

She said there was no financial incentive for doctors to come to the country and it was often difficult for their partners to gain employment.

Bendigo Community Health Services director of Primary Health Care Services Graem Kelly attributed people not seeing a doctor when needed to a shortage of general practitioners.

"There's long waiting lists to catch up with your local GP," Mr Kelly said.

"With the pressures that are being faced by general practitioners in Bendigo at the moment, it makes it difficult to get in a in a timely manner."

Mr Kelly said Bendigo's shortage of general practitioners was well known, but some rural communities had limited access to just one GP.

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He said they could face as much as a month's wait to see a doctor.

Mr Kelly said chronic conditions could be exacerbated by a lack of timely consideration.

"It does put extra pressure on the individuals. It does mean people are suffering more than they should," he said.

"Conditions are probably getting to a stage where they need to be seen at a hospital, where they could have been managed in a GP situation."

Murray Primary Health Network chief executive Matt Jones said the high rate of people not seeing a doctor when needed was likely caused by a combination of supply and demand.

He said there were accessibility barriers to people seeing GPs, in terms of availability and cost.

Mr Jones said areas of low socioeconomic capacity particularly struggled to access services.

"Our one sized approach to primary care means it works well in areas with large population in close proximity and [with] economic capacity, and that doesn't describe much of our region," he said.

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