Women GPs report 65% burnout against 53% for men: Australian survey

Women working as family doctors in Australia now report more burnout and a worse work-life balance than their male colleagues, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' 2026 Health of the Nation report, released in late October 2026 and reported on 31 October. The college's yearly survey found that 65% of female general practitioners (GPs) felt burnt out in the previous 12 months, against 53% of male GPs, and that for the first time since the survey began, women in general practice are less satisfied with their jobs than men.

When family doctors say they are more tired and less satisfied than colleagues, it is a warning about how long they can keep working at that pace. Burnout, as used in these surveys, is a self-reported state of emotional and physical exhaustion linked to work; it is not a medical diagnosis, and the report measures how many doctors say they felt it, not how severe it was.

The report links the gap to the way consultations are paid for. Australia's Medicare pays GPs largely per visit, with fees that rise in steps by the length of the appointment. The college's case is that female GPs tend to see patients with more complex needs and spend longer with them, while the payment system rewards a higher number of shorter visits. Dr Wright described the findings as evidence of ongoing gender bias in how primary health care is funded and delivered. The Ochre Health analysis, which looked at real billing records, attributed most of the earnings gap to male doctors fitting in slightly more appointments each hour. Both agree a gap exists.

For women balancing a demanding career with caring work at home, the numbers echo a familiar pattern. The 2026 figures show work-life balance improving for both men and women compared with 2025, but improving faster for men, so women have moved from slightly ahead to slightly behind. That shift matters because job satisfaction among female GPs has now fallen below that of male GPs for the first time in the survey's history.

Peepals calculation: Female GPs' burnout rate is about 23% higher than male GPs' in relative terms (65 ÷ 53 ≈ 1.23), a gap of 12 percentage points. On work-life balance, women gained 7 points in a year (48% to 55%) while men gained 12 points (45% to 57%), so the men's improvement was about 1.7 times larger (12 ÷ 7 ≈ 1.71). Women's average consultation is about 17% longer than men's (21 ÷ 18 ≈ 1.17). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The figures add pressure on Australia's government and Medicare to look again at how longer consultations are paid for.

Long-term: If the gap persists, health systems risk losing experienced women doctors to reduced hours or early exit, at a time when patient needs are becoming more complex. Seventy-two per cent of GPs in the survey named rising patient complexity as a major issue.

Who is affected: Women working in general practice in Australia, their patients, especially those with long-term or complex conditions who tend to need longer appointments, and practices trying to keep doctors from leaving.

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