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‘The system must do better’: RACGP unveils five-year reform agenda

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The RACGP has revealed exactly where its advocacy efforts will be focused in the next five years, as it unveils its latest reform agenda.
 
Launching the Advocacy Plan 2026–30 at the RACGP Practice Owners Conference on Sunday, the college has set 200 advocacy goals for the future of general practice.
 
Among these are five priorities:

• Increase investment in general practice to value the role of GPs in the health system
• Ensure changing models of care are evidence-based, prioritise safety and quality, and do not fragment care
• Grow and sustain the GP workforce and better support international medical graduates
• Realise a healthcare system that is culturally safe and inclusive
• Reduce red tape, embrace innovative technologies and enhance research

RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told newsGP the plan is an opportunity for the college to outline its priorities at a time when ‘the system must do better’.
 
‘We’re really highlighting these as our core priorities,’ he said.
 
‘We’ve consulted with members and different faculties to try and get a whole range of things addressed in the plan – it really reflects the breadth of what we’re doing in general practice.
 
‘We’re already seeing success in our advocacy.’
 
The 2026–30 iteration comes after the RACGP’s inaugural advocacy plan was launched in 2024.
 
It is an agenda which has gone on to create real change, including most recently the funding of three-year-old health checks in this month’s Federal Budget.
 
The updated plan also includes specific goals for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and rural health advocacy, such as calling on governments to:
 

• adopt the National Anti-Racism Framework and invest in its implementation
• fund the development of a tool for monitoring and measuring racism in general practice and primary healthcare
• raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14
• fund the RACGP-led Pathways to Rural Program
• increase supervisor payments through the National Consistent Payments framework
• increase the rural loading of the bulk-billing incentive.

RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements said the plan aims to deliver ‘what our rural communities deserve’.

‘If a health system is well-funded, well-supported, has good supervision, and there’s good support for a doctor and their family, then a rural town will thrive,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘But when all those systems start to fail, we’ll see it first in the rural and remote areas, and so we need to listen to those communities and take their warnings so that we can then respond quickly.
 
‘Healthcare should be focusing on those that need it most, and that’s why the more we invest in that, the more we’re going to be able to support everybody else.’
 
The Advocacy Plan follows extensive consultation as the college worked to build on the momentum of its first plan.
 
It also calls for members to join the RACGP’s GP Advocate Network to help put the plan into action.
 
RACGP South Australia Deputy Chair Dr Clare Keogh is a member of the Advocacy Network, a role she says has offered her the opportunity to advocate directly to both patients and politicians.
 
‘If you can make their life a bit easier by giving them good quality information and empowering them, including empowering them with patient stories, real-life, grassroots kind of stuff, then it makes their job easier,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘It’s hugely, hugely rewarding.’
 
Among other areas, she has been involved in responding to the independent pharmacy prescribing initiatives in South Australia.
 
‘That’s a huge piece of work and it’s been frustrating at times, but overall, we’ve had some really good wins,’ she said.
 
‘I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if I wasn’t involved in the Advocacy Network.’
 
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advocacy Advocacy Network Advocacy Plan Practice Owners Conference

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