The Australian GP supply crisis, a marketing perspective.
Australia's GP supply shortage is the operational issue dominating primary care strategy through 2024-2026. We see it across every multi-clinic engagement we run. Why it's structurally a marketing problem now, not just an HR problem.
The structural shortage
RACGP and AMA have been documenting the GP supply trajectory for years. GP training-pipeline output has been below replacement for the practising GP workforce since the late 2010s. PE consolidation of primary care has surfaced the shortage from a "slowly worsening" issue to an operational bottleneck that limits portfolio EBITDA growth.
Today, multi-clinic primary care groups can't grow EBITDA without GP supply. Patient-acquisition spend is constrained by clinical capacity. New-clinic openings are gated by recruitment lead time. M&A pipeline is gated by the recruited-GP base of the target.
Why this is a marketing problem now
1. GPs are passive candidates
Most GPs aren't actively job-searching. They're persuadable. Persuadable candidates require marketing, content, paid media reach, employer-brand positioning, lifestyle storytelling, not just a job posting. Multi-clinic groups that haven't built recruitment marketing capability are recruiting at a structural disadvantage.
2. Recruitment marketing channels are paid-media-led
SEEK is paid media. Indeed is paid media. LinkedIn Recruiter + Sponsored InMail is paid media. Meta passive-candidate reach is paid media. The agencies running paid-media-led recruitment programmes win supply against multi-clinic groups using HR-team-driven approaches.
3. Per-clinic landing pages matter
Generic "join our network" recruitment pages don't convert. Per-clinic landing pages tied to specific catchments, specific clinic cultures, specific compensation packages, specific clinical autonomy levels, these convert at meaningfully higher rates.
4. Salesforce / HubSpot recruitment-funnel discipline
Application-funnel reporting, time-to-fill per role per clinic, channel-attributed application source, recruiter-pipeline efficiency. Marketing programmes for GP supply need the same operational discipline as patient-acquisition programmes. Most multi-clinic groups don't run it.
Why this is structural, not cyclical
GP training pipeline output won't increase materially before 2030. Population health needs continue rising. PE-portfolio consolidation continues. The structural undersupply is a 5-10 year operating reality, not a short-term cycle. Multi-clinic groups that build recruitment marketing capability now get a structural advantage; groups that don't fall behind structurally.
For multi-clinic groups
Three practical actions:
- Treat GP recruitment as flagship paid-media programme. Separate ad accounts from patient acquisition. Separate management fees. Separate reporting cadence. Separate creative review pipeline.
- Build per-clinic recruitment landing-page discipline. Every clinic, every state, every clinical-autonomy variant. Per-page conversion-funnel measurement.
- Get the funnel reporting right. Cost per qualified application, cost per signed offer, time-to-fill per role per clinic. Treat the data with the discipline you'd treat patient-acquisition data.
Read more:
Multi-clinic group struggling with GP supply?
Forty-five-minute call. We'll review your current SEEK / Indeed / LinkedIn spend, your application funnel, your time-to-fill data, and quote a separate GP recruitment programme.
Book a Discovery