The future is now: Practice Owners Conference 2025

‘Shaping general practice for the future’ could not have been a more apt theme for the RACGP’s Practice Owners Conference 2025, held over the weekend in Melbourne.
 
With a heightened focus on major reforms already sweeping through the sector, practice owners spent the weekend discussing the challenges of general practice, but also what the solutions could be.
 
Now in its seventh year, more than 700 registrants and 60 exhibitors attended the three-day event, offering thought-provoking information sessions, presentations, keynote deliveries, and Q&As, all with a view to improving practice management and patient experience.
 
This year’s event kicked off on Friday, before the conference program began in earnest on Saturday, with attendees filling conference rooms, an exhibition floor abuzz with stallholders, and the first keynote address.
 
After an introduction from RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Muñoz, and a Welcome to Country from Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Elder Uncle John, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told the packed auditorium that general practice is ‘in the middle of some very interesting times’.
 
‘Each and every one of you is going to leave here with ideas that educate you, inspire you, and potentially challenge you, but the purpose of this event is to bring us all together to hear about what the challenges are, but also to talk about the solutions,’ Dr Wright said.
 
‘I hope that this conference will help you understand what the future of our profession can look like and highlight the potential growth opportunities, so we can continue to ensure we have a financially viable and sustainable future.
 
‘General practice remains the most efficient part of our healthcare system, but we need well-run and properly funded practices to continue providing the high-quality care that patients expect and deserve.’
 
The conference comes just months after the Federal Government announced its historic $8.5 billion investment into Medicare.
 
And with technology advances and ‘an increasing array of alternative providers and services’, Dr Wright said the nation’s 8000 practices and more than 50,000 GPs will need to adapt.
 
‘I’m worried that if we don’t adapt and make the most of these changes, others will seize on the opportunity and say that, with expanded scope, they will be able to meet the Government’s needs,’ he said.
 
‘We need to continue to get the message across that general practice is the solution for the problems facing our health system, and not the problem.
 
‘Patient care is our number one priority, but we need to run our clinics sustainably.’

RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Muñoz speaking on day two of the conference. (Image: Jake Pinskier)

If there was any doubt as to the importance of this year’s theme, it was confirmed on the exhibition floor.
 
Stallholders offered training solutions, portals of promise and wonders of workflow with innovations such as AI receptionists and scribes, advances in record keeping, and cybersecurity.
 
This was complemented by sessions including ‘Understanding financial information 101 for practice owners’, ‘Creating wealth and saving tax in challenging times’, and ‘What does a healthy BMI look like for a practice? How an Item 705 appointment might look for your practice’.
 
With many sessions running concurrently, attendees moved between the six conference rooms, many filled to standing-room only.
 
Saturday’s second keynote speech, ‘From ballot box to consulting room: What the election means for general practice’ became a fact-sharing session on incoming changes to Medicare chronic disease management (CDM) items, after details were released just two days earlier.
 
Due to take effect from 1 July, the CDM changes will see new MBS fees, transition arrangements and referral pathways rolled out.
 
Brisbane-based GP Dr Michelle Ledbury said the CDM changes are ‘a step in the wrong direction’.
 
‘It will hurt GPs because it’s a way of funding our practice staff and nurses,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘At the moment there’s a system whereby our nurses generate that income, it’s part of their job. So that part of their job is going to be worth less over the course of a year.’
 
As she is about to become a practice owner, Dr Ledbury came to the conference to learn more about the steps involved in setting up a practice, such as management and financial tips, and available IT and accounting systems.


The RACGP’s stand at the Practice Owners Conference exhibition hall. (Image: Jake Pinskier)
 
Attending his third Practice Owners conference, Dr Niranjan Somashekar from Brisbane said he wanted to be across the changes that could help with the ‘running the business side’ of his practice, as well as the changes to Medicare.
 
‘It’s good to be more aware of things,’ he said, noting there was ‘a lot more AI’ at the conference compared to last year.
 
On the changes to CDM, Dr Somashekar didn’t yet have an opinion. 
 
‘I’ll wait for the big boys to analyse it. I’m a small practice owner, so I’d rather wait for more clarity,’ he said.
 
New South Wales-based practice owner Dr Gudrun Muller-Grotjan said she ‘welcomes’ the CDM changes.
 
‘It’s fantastic,’ she said. ‘The reasoning behind it is to prevent practices from getting money for not delivering quality care. I think that’s the thinking behind it, and I’m all for it.
 
‘And it’s not as if we haven’t had notice. This was announced 18 months ago’.
 
Dr Muller-Grotjan’s main reason for attending this year’s conference – she’s been to all of them except the first – was to become better informed of the upcoming Medicare changes.
 
‘Being a rural practice, that’s a very burning topic for us,’ she said.
 
Dr Muller-Grotjan enjoyed sessions on RACGP advocacy and the offering of home care packages via general practice, as well as connecting with exhibitors and exploring the new technology available, and echoed Dr Wright’s call for practice owners to ‘adapt’ to change and innovation.
 
‘Like Michael said this morning, we’ve got to stay up to date, because if we don’t, someone else will,’ she said.
 
‘We’ve got to go with the times, you can’t stand still. You’re either going backwards or going forwards.’
 
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