New GP data shows progress in several areas of preventive care
30 Sep 2026
The 2026 report examines data collected through the Federal Government’s Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI) Incentive. The program provides quarterly payments to practices that work with their Primary Health Network (PHN) on continuous quality improvement.
For the latest report, 6244 practices submitted PIP QI data. After technical and data quality checks, information from 5882 practices was included in the final results.
Diabetes monitoring
The recording of HbA1c results for patients with diabetes has continued to increase over the past three years.
For patients with Type 1 diabetes, the figure rose by 2.4 percentage points to 60%. For Type 2 diabetes, it increased by 3.3 percentage points to 74.9%.
For patients recorded as having undefined diabetes, the figure increased by 5.8 percentage points to 70.5%.
Smoking status
By July 2026, 69.7% of patients aged 15 and over had their smoking status recorded in their GP record during the previous 12 months.
The figure varied between PHNs, ranging from 64% to 82.3%.
The proportion of patients recorded as regular smokers also fell slightly, from 13.5% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2026.
Height and weight
The proportion of patients aged 15 and over who had their height and weight recorded within the previous year increased by 5.6 percentage points over three years.
It reached 28.6% in the latest data.
Influenza vaccination
Recording of influenza immunisation status has fallen across the three groups measured in recent years.
In the latest figures, status was recorded for 53% of patients aged 65 and over, 46.1% of patients with diabetes and 55.1% of patients with COPD.
Alcohol consumption
Recording of alcohol consumption status increased by seven percentage points between July 2023 and July 2026.
The measure reached 66.4% in the latest figures.
Cardiovascular disease risk
Among regular patients aged 45–74 without a recorded cardiovascular disease diagnosis, 61.1% had the required risk factors recorded to allow for a CVD risk assessment.
This was an increase of 8.5 percentage points compared with 2023.
Cervical screening
The proportion of regular female patients aged 25–74 who had a cervical screening test recorded within the previous five years increased by 8.9 percentage points.
The latest figure was 46.4%, representing an increase of 353,925 patients.
Diabetes and blood pressure
There was only a small change in blood pressure recording for patients with diabetes.
The proportion who had their blood pressure recorded by their GP within the previous six months increased from 56.9% in 2023 to 58.7% in 2026.
The report also shows differences between PHNs across the 10 quality improvement measures, with some measures increasing while others, including influenza immunisation recording, declined.
The PIP QI program began in August 2019, with its first data published in 2021. The Federal Government announced in the May 2026 Budget that $119.3 million would be provided to extend the program for another two years, through to 2028.
New GP data shows progress in several areas of preventive care
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).