1 March 2026
Every week, millions of Australians pick up the phone to book a GP appointment. Many of them hang up frustrated. New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics paints a clear picture: in 2024–25, 26% of people reported waiting longer than they felt was acceptable for a GP appointment. That's more than one in four patients. And for those living in outer regional or remote areas, it climbs to nearly one in three.
These aren't just inconvenient statistics — they're a signal that something in the patient access journey is broken. And for the practices at the centre of it, the pressure is real. Phones that ring constantly, reception teams stretched thin, and patients who eventually give up and head to an emergency department instead.
One of the starkest findings from recent research is how after-hours access — or the lack of it — is contributing to emergency department overcrowding. According to the Australian Healthcare Index, 43% of patients who visited an emergency department said, on reflection, their concern could have been managed by a GP or urgent care clinic. That's nearly half of all ED presentations that didn't need to be there.
The reasons aren't hard to understand. When a patient develops symptoms on a Saturday afternoon or can't get through on the phone before close of business, the ED becomes the path of least resistance. For the patient, it's often a stressful, expensive experience. For the health system, it's a costly and inefficient use of emergency resources.
Practices that find ways to extend their availability — even modestly — can make a meaningful difference to both patient outcomes and system pressure.
You don't need to overhaul your entire practice model to improve patient access. Some of the most effective changes are operational ones that reduce friction at the front door.
Extending after-hours availability is the trickiest challenge for most practices. Staffing a phone line outside business hours is expensive and logistically complex — and for smaller practices, it's simply not feasible to have a receptionist on call at 10pm.
Some practices are addressing this through AI-assisted phone tools that can handle overflow and after-hours calls, answer common questions, and book appointments directly into the practice management system. Voral.ai's Liza, for instance, is designed specifically for Australian medical practices — she speaks Australian English, understands healthcare context, and integrates with systems like Best Practice and Cliniko to book appointments in real time. It's one way practices are extending their availability without asking their team to work longer hours.
Whether you pursue a technology solution or a staffing model, the goal is the same: no patient should reach a dead end when they need care.
It's worth remembering that patient access isn't just a patient problem — it directly affects your team. Reception staff who field a constant stream of frustrated callers about wait times and booking difficulties experience higher stress and burnout. Improving access upstream often has downstream benefits for staff wellbeing too.
The 2024–25 ABS data does show some progress — the proportion of Australians who could always see their preferred GP when needed has inched upward, and fewer people reported unacceptable wait times compared to the year prior. But there's still a long way to go.
Practices that invest in removing friction from the patient journey — whether through better digital tools, clearer communication, or extended availability — aren't just improving scores on a survey. They're building the kind of trust and loyalty that keeps patients coming back, and that keeps their team doing the work they trained for.
If you're not sure where access is breaking down at your practice, start by listening. Call your own practice at different times of day. Try to book online. Read your last batch of patient feedback. The gaps often reveal themselves quickly.
From there, even one or two targeted improvements — a better after-hours message, an online booking option, a same-day urgent slot — can meaningfully shift the experience for your patients and your team.