19 April 2026
There's a perception in healthcare that patient experience is a soft metric — nice to track, but secondary to clinical outcomes. The data tells a different story. When patients feel heard, respected, and able to access care without friction, they stay with a practice, follow through on treatment plans, and recommend you to others. When they don't, research consistently shows that 41% will quietly move to a different provider.
Here's what Australian patients are actually telling us — and what your practice can do about it.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2024-25 Patient Experiences survey, 26.6% of Australians delayed or did not see a GP when they needed to — an improvement on the 29.2% recorded the year before, but still more than one in four people.
The most common reason isn't clinical complexity. It's friction: can't get an appointment at a convenient time, can't get through on the phone, can't afford the gap. The good news is that most of these are solvable at the practice level.
Start with your scheduling. Are your appointment slots actually aligned with when your patients want to come in? Many practices default to 9-5 Monday to Friday bookings but serve large cohorts of working adults, carers, or shift workers who need early mornings, evenings, or Saturday sessions. Reviewing your booking data — even once per quarter — can reveal mismatches you didn't know existed.
Before any clinical interaction happens, there's almost always a phone call. And for too many practices, that first touchpoint is already breaking down.
Studies consistently show that around 23% of calls to medical practices go unanswered during business hours — sent to voicemail, placed in a hold queue, or simply dropped. When callers hit voicemail, 62% hang up without leaving a message. They either call back later, try a competing practice, or do nothing at all. None of those outcomes serve your patients or your practice.
After-hours is even harder to manage. Weekends alone account for roughly 23% of total weekly call volume at practices with any form of after-hours handling. Most practices that don't actively manage this traffic are silently losing patients to practices that do.
This is one area where the solution doesn't have to be complex. Whether it's extended reception hours, a professional answering service, or an AI practice assistant like Liza that handles overflow and after-hours calls and books directly into your practice management system — making sure every call is answered is one of the highest-leverage improvements any practice can make to patient experience.
The ABS data shows that most patients feel their GP spent enough time with them — average consultation length is now 18.7 minutes. But time alone doesn't equal a positive experience.
Research consistently shows that patients' perceptions of care quality are heavily shaped by whether they felt listened to. This isn't about adding time to every consultation; it's about how you use the time you have.
A few small shifts can make a meaningful difference:
These behaviours cost nothing, add minimal time, and significantly shape the patient's experience — including their likelihood of following through on any treatment plan.
Patients don't just experience a practice during their consultation. The waiting room is part of the care environment. Long waits without communication erode trust, and unexplained delays feel disrespectful even when they're clinically unavoidable.
Simple operational changes can help: an SMS update when a GP is running more than 15 minutes behind, a brief word from reception when delays extend, or offering patients the option to wait somewhere more comfortable and be called when it's their turn. These small gestures signal respect for the patient's time and go a long way towards preserving goodwill during an imperfect situation.
One of the most underused patient experience levers in Australian general practice is the follow-up contact. A brief call or SMS after a complex consultation, a procedure, or a results discussion communicates genuine care — and catches concerns before they become complaints or re-presentations.
For patients managing chronic conditions, regular check-ins increase the perception of being looked after. They also reduce administrative burden down the track, by surfacing small issues before they become urgent.
Patient experience is built across dozens of touchpoints — some clinical, many not. The practices that consistently score well don't necessarily have more staff or bigger budgets. They have systems that make every touchpoint count: reliable access, a phone that gets answered, consultations where patients feel heard, and follow-up that closes the loop.
Most of this doesn't require a wholesale redesign of how you operate. It requires intentional attention to the moments that matter most to your patients — and the discipline to measure, adjust, and keep improving.