Protect Continuity: What’s at stake and how I will fix it

What is at stake with fragmentation and pharmacy prescribing

Continuity is one of general practice’s greatest strengths. Yet healthcare policy is increasingly favouring short-term access and political and commercial interests over comprehensive, continuous care.

Too often, reforms are announced through political agreements before proper clinical scrutiny, consultation or evaluation.

Expanded pharmacy prescribing and diagnosis remain the most significant current examples. Patients can be directed to isolated episodes of diagnosis, prescribing and treatment without shared records, reliable follow-up or one clinician responsible for the whole picture.

But continuity is not only about pharmacy prescribing.

Fragmentation also occurs when new services, funding models and multidisciplinary teams are designed around general practice rather than anchored within it. Australia risks normalising disconnected transactions in place of comprehensive care.

As parts of our work are carved away, governments fund the separated transaction while general practice continues to carry the complexity, coordination and follow-up. The value of specialist general practice becomes less visible, weakening the case for proper funding.

A fragmented, underfunded specialty with diminishing scope will struggle to attract the future workforce Australia needs. The consequences are even greater in rural and regional communities, where practices rely on broad scope and sufficient patient activity to remain viable.

What I will do if elected as President

If elected as your President, I will firmly oppose pharmacy prescribing and diagnosis where it substitutes for specialist general practice care, fragments treatment or leaves responsibility for follow-up unclear.

I will also challenge reforms that divide patients into disconnected services without considering their overall care.

But opposition alone is not a strategy.

I will advance credible alternatives that improve access through general practice rather than around it, including properly funded same-day appointments and GP-delivered after-hours care.

I will champion team-based care that strengthens general practice. Multidisciplinary teams must be clinically safe, connected to the patient’s usual general practice, supported by shared records and clear responsibility. Expanding teams should improve access and continuity, not create more fragmentation.

Continuity must also mean equitable access. I will support general practice to reduce barriers to timely, culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Care must be shaped locally, respectfully and in partnership, strengthening trusted relationships and access to chronic disease management, youth wellbeing, family safety and preventive care close to home.

How I will deliver it

Intervene before decisions are made

I will strengthen the College’s ability to identify proposals early and engage directly with ministers, departments, advisers, the opposition and crossbench while decisions are still being shaped.

We must be at the table when policies are developed, not invited in after the announcement.

Call out decisions that bypass proper process

When governments bypass their own health departments, ignore established checks and balances, or announce reforms before proper consultation and evaluation, I will call it out publicly.

The College must hold governments to account, regardless of which party is in office. Health policy should be shaped by evidence, clinical expertise and patient safety, not political convenience or commercial pressure.

Build influence in every electorate

National advocacy must be backed by organised influence in every electorate.

I will mobilise the relationships GPs already have with MPs and senators across Australia, supporting members with clear evidence, practical resources and locally relevant messages.

Political representatives must understand what fragmentation means in their own electorates.

Demand evidence and expose the consequences

Counting consultations, prescriptions or services does not prove that a reform is safe or effective.

Independent evaluation must examine patient safety, clinical outcomes, continuity, follow-up, antimicrobial stewardship, culturally safe access and the effect on general practice viability, particularly in rural communities.

I will combine that evidence with the experiences of patients, GPs, registrars, practice owners and communities so decision-makers cannot ignore the wider consequences of disconnected care.

Protecting the whole of general practice

Protect Continuity is bigger than pharmacy prescribing, one funding model or one professional dispute.

It is about ensuring every reform strengthens comprehensive care rather than dismantling it. It is about protecting a profession future doctors want to join, practices can sustain and communities can continue to access.

Patients deserve more than isolated services. They deserve connected care, trusted relationships and a health system that strengthens continuity rather than working around it.