Preventive health in general practice

As the most accessed health professionals in the primary care health system, GPs are uniquely placed to provide comprehensive and coordinated preventive care. This keeps patients out of hospitals and relieves pressure on other parts of the health system.⁸ Most practising GPs provide a wide range of preventive health services for their patients, highlighting the breadth of general practice work. Blood pressure and cholesterol tests, along with vaccinations and diabetes screenings are commonly provided (Figure 13).

Every touch point in the provision of general practice care affords an opportunity to improve multiple health outcomes. Australians are living longer but there has been no change in the proportion of life spent in full health. In fact, years lived in ill health are increasing. More than one-third (36%) of Australia’s burden of disease last year could have been prevented by reducing exposure to modifiable risk factors, such as smoking or alcohol use.⁹ Many of these factors can be addressed in general practice, including through opportunistic care when people see a GP for a routine or unrelated matter such as a vaccination.

More than four in five practising GPs would like to provide more preventive care to their patients, with 38% strongly agreeing and 45% agreeing with the proposition. GPs nominated vaccinations as the most beneficial preventive health service, with nearly one in two GPs placing it in their three most important services. While examined further in this survey, this may be partially reflective of vaccinations as an opportunity to provide other preventive health services to patients. Vaccinations can also be offered when people present to general practice for other care.

The top two barriers to providing more preventive care are a lack of time and financial incentives. More than four in five (82%) practising GPs say that MBS rebates and incentive schemes are insufficient to support more preventive care for patients. From a patient perspective, this means potentially missing out on care that GPs are well-positioned to provide due to inadequate funding for this type of care. Government budget papers highlight "Every dollar invested in preventive health saves an estimated $14.30 in healthcare and other costs".¹⁰

A similar proportion of practising GPs indicate a lack of time is a barrier to providing greater levels of preventive care. Closely related to the issue of time is the trade-off GPs make to prioritise patients who have more urgent health issues in the form of acute or chronic conditions.