Bid to fund after-hours general practices gains momentum

The RACGP has called for funding to keep general practices in South Australia open later and on weekends, a plan which has now been backed by the SA Opposition.
 
On Wednesday, SA Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia revealed his party’s support of a $24 million ‘GP after-hours increased access trial’, designed to ease the strain on hospitals and improve access to affordable care.
 
The two-year trial would allow up to 80 general practices to apply for grants of up to $150,000 each, enabling them to stay open until 8.00 pm on weeknights and from 9.00 am – 1.00 pm on Sundays.
 
Originally in RACGP SA’s 2025–26 pre-budget submission, the proposal would fund practices to meet the additional costs of operating after hours, such as wages, on-call allowances and facility costs. 
 
RACGP Board and SA Chair Dr Siân Goodson told newsGP the college is ‘really pleased’ the Opposition is including the proposal in its platform for the next state election, due to be held in March 2026.
 
‘They have pretty much taken our proposal and run with it, which is great,’ she said.
 
‘It’s a low-cost, straightforward solution that would not just make it easier for patients to see their GP, but reduce the strain on our hospitals by ensuring that fewer of our patients miss out on care.
 
‘While there’s significant demand for after-hours general practice care among our patients, the funding simply isn’t there to make it affordable.’
 
Dr Goodson said the RACGP is now waiting to see if further talks on the proposal will take place with the SA Government.
 
‘But otherwise, we’ll keep pushing for it, and hopefully the current Government will also want to work with us on a similar proposal,’ she said.
 
In South Australia, almost 83% of the population, about 1.5 million people, lives with at least one long-term health condition.
 
‘We’ve got huge rates of chronic disease,’ Dr Goodson said.
 
‘Where I work up in Elizabeth, in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, we’ve got some of the highest rates of diabetes, COPD and obesity, and there is a real demand for more ability to see GPs and access that preventive care.’
 
The 2020 Australia’s Health Panel survey conducted by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia found 67% of respondents had accessed after-hours primary care at least once in the previous five years, with most after-hours care accessed between 6.00 pm – 11.00 pm on weekdays.
 
South Australia’s six urgent care clinics provide healthcare for extended hours for some patients who might otherwise end up in hospital. However, they can only treat a select range of urgent health issues, and are not designed to replace a patient’s usual general practice. 
 
‘We’re a big state, and most urgent care clinics have only got one GP working at a time, so we can help by potentially providing more opportunity for patients to see their own GP, or certainly go to their own practice, after hours,’ Dr Goodson said.
 
Mr Tarzia said extending general practice operating hours will offer families more flexibility to manage their health around work, school and social activities, while easing the strain on the health system.
 
‘We know that being able to see your doctor for preventive healthcare, such as vaccinations and regular health checks, keeps us healthier in the long term and prevents additional strain on the health system,’ he said. 
 
‘This is an initiative that the RACGPs has been calling for and we support all options that make it as easy as possible for everyone to access this essential health service.’
 
Dr Goodson said the trial would not only offer flexibility to patients, but also to GPs, particularly those with young children.
 
‘Anecdotally, speaking to GPs, there are people that would potentially do some work on a Sunday – for example, when they’ve got childcare or a spouse at home and have that flexibility – but most practices aren’t open on Sundays,’ she said.
 
‘So, we think there are people that might want to work at different times of day, that might step up and do a bit more in terms of hours.
 
‘There’s obviously concern that some people don’t want to work evenings and weekends, and there’s absolutely no requirement for them to do that. This is an opportunity for practices where they feel it would be helpful to meet patient demand, and the idea is that there’ll be potentially incentives for those practices to enable that to happen.’
 
Dr Goodson said the proposal offers ‘a real opportunity to take pressure off secondary care, if we can be doing more in primary care’.
 
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