Women in the south east said their appointments were too short. A federal review has now put a number on why.
Women's Health in the South East
A federal review has found Medicare's fee structure disadvantages women patients and women general practitioners, because both are more likely to use and to provide longer consultations. Women in Victoria's Southern Metropolitan Region told a state inquiry the same thing two years ago. Women's Health in the South East wants the final report to recommend that the rebate per minute no longer falls as the consultation gets longer.
"Women told us their appointments were too short and their general practitioner always seemed rushed and overbooked. We wrote that down and sent it to an inquiry. What we could not tell them was why," said WHISE Chief Executive Officer Kit McMahon.
"Now we can. Medicare pays less per minute the longer a consultation runs, and the appointment a woman needs is almost always the long one."
The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Advisory Committee released its Time-Tiered Working Group draft report on 3 September 2026. In 2023 to 2024, women general practitioners provided 40.3 per cent of all non-referred general practice attendances and 52.6 per cent of the level D consultations that run 40 to 59 minutes. Those are among the consultations Medicare pays least per minute for.
Women's Health in the South East (WHISE) is the regional women's health service for Victoria's Southern Metropolitan Region, working across ten local government areas and 1.56 million people.
The region put this in writing two years ago
In 2024, WHISE gathered the lived experience of more than 120 women and gender diverse people for the Victorian Inquiry into Women's Pain, with Afri-Aus Care and Wellsprings for Women.
The Wellsprings submission recorded that when women do see a general practitioner, "the consultation times are too short and do not allow them to properly explore their health concerns. Many commented that the GP always seems rushed and overbooked."
At WHISE forums in April 2026, participants named inadequate Medicare rebates among the costs of a growing two-tiered health system. Their strongest theme was not being believed, and being believed takes time.
Ms McMahon said the remedy is a pricing decision.
"Recommendation 5 should say plainly what it implies. Recommend that the rebate per minute no longer falls as the consultation gets longer. Without that principle the tiers just get renamed, and the woman who needs forty minutes still gets nineteen."
The finding belongs in two places
WHISE supports Recommendations 5 and 6 and will say so in a submission before the consultation closes on 15 October 2026 and will put the same finding to the Senate's Select Committee on Women's Health.
"Women in this region described this problem before anyone had costed it, and the review has confirmed they were right. What is left is a pricing decision, and it is still open."
ENDS
Notes to editors
Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Advisory Committee, Time-Tiered Working Group Draft Report, released 3 September 2026
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The draft report finds the current fee structure results in lower per minute rates for longer consultations, and that this disproportionately affects women general practitioners and women patients.
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Providers, 2023 to 2024. Women general practitioners provided 40.3% of all non-referred general practice attendances, 47.8% of level C attendances and 52.6% of level D attendances.
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Patients, 2023 to 2024. Women accounted for 55.8% of level B claims and 65.5% of level E claims. Women's share of claims rises as the consultation gets longer.
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Recommendation 5. MBS benefits for time-tiered items should equitably support appropriate and varied consultation lengths, so patients can access care that meets their individual clinical needs.
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Recommendation 6. Bulk billing incentives should be based on a percentage of the MBS fee rather than a flat rate, to avoid furthering the disproportionate remuneration of shorter consultations.
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The draft report also recommends integrating antenatal and non-directive pregnancy counselling services into the general time-tiered items. Antenatal attendance items are not currently time-tiered and pay less than the equivalent time-tiered item for a longer visit.
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Consultation levels: A under 6 minutes, B 6 to 19 minutes, C 20 to 39 minutes, D 40 to 59 minutes, E 60 minutes and over.
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Submissions close 15 October 2026. The final report is due to government by the end of 2026. Enquiries: [email protected]
Wellsprings for Women and Women's Health in the South East, submission to the Victorian Inquiry into Women's Pain, 2024
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"When women do see a GP the consultation times are too short and do not allow them to properly explore their health concerns. Many commented that the GP always seems rushed and overbooked." Page 11.
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The submission also records long waiting times for specialist care, reliance on family members for translation in the absence of interpreters, and a pattern of women's pain being dismissed, minimised or misdiagnosed.
Women's Health in the South East, Women's Pain Forums Snapshot Summary, Mordialloc and Narre Warren South, April 2026
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Participants described specialist fees, declining bulk billing, inadequate Medicare rebates, PBS gaps, hospital parking costs and the cost of scans and investigations as contributing to a growing two tiered health system.
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The strongest and most consistent theme was the experience of not being believed. Participants called for systems where women's accounts of their own bodies are treated as legitimate clinical evidence from the outset, rather than something that must be repeatedly proven.
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Priority recommendations included advocating federally for affordability reforms, including Medicare improvements.
Senate's Select Committee on Women's Health
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The Select Committee is examining postpartum care, women's pain and experiences of medical misogyny, fertility and assisted reproduction, and the regulation of medical devices used in women's healthcare, and will hold hearings around the country.
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On 21 August 2026 WHISE published the three matters it will put to the Committee: that health promotion, primary prevention and recovery be counted alongside treatment; that the physical and mental health streams of the inquiry remain connected; and that peri-urban growth corridors be named alongside regional and rural Australia.
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aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Womens_Health and whise.org.au/womens-health/senate-select-committee-womens-health/
Victorian Population Health Survey 2023, published at whole of region level
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21.1% of women in the Southern Metropolitan Region reported being unable to see a general practitioner when they needed to, compared with 14.6% of men.
Victorian Women's Health Atlas, 2024, drawing on Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
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Glen Eira: 546 women had a Medicare billed contraceptive device inserted. 227 of those procedures were performed by a provider located in Glen Eira.
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Kingston: 209 women were dispensed a medication abortion script. 47 were written by a prescriber located in Kingston.
WHISE work on the Victorian Inquiry into Women's Pain
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Four community forums across Mordialloc, Bass, Clyde North and Hampton Park, May to July 2024, gathering the lived experience of more than 120 women and gender diverse people.
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Submissions co-authored with Afri-Aus Care and Wellsprings for Women, and a contribution to the statewide Women's Health Services Network submission.
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Two follow up forums in April 2026 in Mordialloc and Narre Warren South, hosted by local members of parliament, at which the Inquiry recommendations were presented and community responses gathered.
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WHISE work on the gender pain gap: whise.org.au/addressing-the-gender-pain-gap/
Support is available from 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
About us:
Women's Health in the South East (WHISE) is the women's health service for Victoria's Southern Metropolitan Region, covering ten local government areas — Bayside, Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Kingston, Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip and Stonnington. WHISE is place-based. It works where women live, alongside local government, health services, community organisations and women themselves, on gender equity, women's health and wellbeing, and the primary prevention of violence against women. Its focus is preventive and structural: building the conditions in which women can be healthy and safe, rather than responding only once harm has occurred. The region is one of the most diverse in Australia, and much of WHISE's work is with and for migrant and refugee women, women seeking asylum, and women in the outer growth corridors — including community consultation in language, partnerships with settlement and multicultural services, and work with health and community sector partners to make services usable for women who are not well served by mainstream design. WHISE contributed to Victoria's Inquiry into Women's Pain, including running consultations across the region, where women repeatedly described their pain and health concerns being dismissed during and after pregnancy. That work informs the position WHISE will put to the Senate Select Committee. As one of twelve Victorian women's health services, WHISE also works as part of a statewide network, and with the Women's Health Services Network nationally, on policy, advocacy and evidence.
Contact details:
Dos Hetherington, WHISE Communications Lead,
0412317334
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Women across Victoria's south east said their appointments were too short and their GP always seemed rushed. A federal review has now confirmed why. Image: stock photography
