BEACH--bettering the evaluation and care of health: a continuous national study of general practice activity.

General practice is recognised as the first port of call for most patients in the Australian healthcare system with GPs performing a gatekeeper role. There are more than 17,000 vocationally registered general practitioners in Australia and about 1,500 registrars currently training 1 or one GP per 974 persons. Almost all of us (82%) attend a GP at least once during any given year. GPs provide by far the majority of the 100 million non-specialist services to the population that are paid by Medicare, 1 at an average rate of 5.4 per person. 2