Millions of migrants and refugees around the world experience poorer health outcomes than those in their host communities, according to a report by the World Health Organization.
That's why having a reliable local GP is essential to multicultural communities in Australia.
But over the last four years, over 60 practices have closed across the country - leaving the most vulnerable without the support they need.
President of the Royal Australian College of GPs, Dr Bruce Willett says since Labor introduced the Medicare rebate freeze in 2013, there's been almost four billion dollars taken from Medicare for general practices.
He says that has shifted the cost onto GP clinics and patients, with rural and regional communities affected the most.
Unfortunately the more vulnerable communities tend to be the ones who I think are experiencing this the most. So areas where it's more difficult to bulk bill less, patients are struggling to pay that gap and rural areas where the economy is scale and not available to rural practices. So we've seen across the country there's almost no single doctor practices and very few one or two doctors practices. Practices have had to amalgamate to try and stay viable and often in rural communities that's not possible.
