‘Practices like ours are dying’: why GPs aren’t celebrating Medicare’s record investment

Dr Phillip Loxley started his Sutherland general practice nearly 40 years ago. He says raising costs meant it would be difficult to do it today. Photograph: James Gourley/The Guardian

On a Thursday morning in April, the patients in Dr Phillip Loxley’s waiting room have either been coming to his practice in south Sydney since he opened it nearly 40 years ago, or – like 27-year-old Liam there for a check-up – since they were born.

Wendy Rayment, 75, is the former. Loxley has not only managed her asthma for years but was the doctor who helped her get a diagnosis for lymphoma in her eye after she experienced a range of “red herring” symptoms, starting in 2016, and then helped manage her care throughout the treatment.