Professor Jane Gunn is the University of Melbourne’s Inaugural Chair of Primary Care Research and Deputy Head of General Practice. Australian Doctor Weekly has judged her one of Australia’s 50 most influential people in general practice (2005). Professor Gunn leads a unit which works to develop excellence in primary care research and research training.

Federal/state divides are particularly detrimental to getting excellent general practice delivered to communities. General practice is federally funded but people live within states.

Over the past decade we have seen a rural medical workforce crisis and more recently a crisis in finding medical practitioners for outer metropolitan areas. General practice is not attracting the graduates that it was 10 to 20 years ago, which needs to be addressed urgently. Quality health care requires quality general practice and thus a quality medical workforce.

Chronic disease and the ageing population are placing increased strain on the primary care/general practice health care systems. Our health system has been built around an acute care model. A rethink is needed in the way care is funded and delivered in order to deal with future demands.

General practice reform should be based upon robust evidence. Research is most commonly conducted in secondary and tertiary settings. As care moves more into the community sector we need clinical and health services research to underpin the health care that is delivered in these settings. Australia lacks the fundamental community based research infrastructure to conduct this research.

We need a concerted and considerable investment in primary care clinical based research if we are to address this research gap (the ­primary care equivalent of the laboratory). This requires close collaboration between practices and the university sector – but without serious funding we are just tinkering at the edges.

An increase in medical schools and graduates and changes in the case mix of hospitals means more teaching will be community based. General practice must be adequately resourced to take on this role, for which human and infrastructure resources are required.

An increased role for nursing in general practice is welcome but will require plans for sustainable workforce training and development.