Nearly one-quarter of general practitioners in Australia provide hearing tests, according to the RACGP’s General Practice Health of the Nation 2025 Report.
In a section which asked GPs which preventive care services they offered, 23% said they offered hearing tests, which was usually the practice nurse doing hearing screening.
This compared with 43% offering vision tests, and at the other end, 96% offering blood pressure tests, with cholesterol tests, vaccinations, diabetes screenings and weight management all offered by 90% or more of doctors.
In April and May 2025, 1,958 GPs answered the questions on preventive care as part of the Health of the Nation survey.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) report was launched at Parliament House in Canberra on 7 October 2025. It found GP appointments were getting longer and care was becoming more complex, but GPs remained focused on their patients’ health – and patient satisfaction was rising.
“Most practising GPs provide a wide range of preventive health services for their patients, highlighting the breadth of general practice work,” the report said. “Every touch point in the provision of general practice care affords an opportunity to improve multiple health outcomes.”
Dr Michael Wright, RACGP president, said rates of chronic disease and mental health presentations were on the rise, the population was ageing, and 68% of GPs pinpointed the increasing complexity of patient presentations as the greatest challenge facing the profession.
“It also highlighted a significant missed opportunity when it comes to preventive care; 84% of GPs want to provide more preventive care, but only one in three have the time to provide it to their patients,” he said.
Hearing screens a helpful pathway
Dr Cathryn Hester, RACGP Queensland chair, and a board member of West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, said it was usually the practice nurse who did hearing screens.
“If practices have the capacity to do this and they are meeting a community need this can be a very helpful pathway for patients to receive appropriate care,” she told Hearing Practitioner Australia.
“Most practices do not perform hearing tests onsite, however, they will have a relationships with local audiologists, so that they can refer patients with confidence that they will receive high-quality health care input and advice.”
She said asking about hearing concerns or changes was a routine part of GPs over 75’s health assessments which were completed on an annual basis.
“This allows GPs to proactively identify patients at risk of ENT and hearing conditions, perform a physical exam and refer for further testing and review if needed.
“We also track patients who have hearing loss via their EMR (electronic medical record) and annotate their charts so that we can provide extra support for booking and or consults if needed for patients with more severe hearing loss.”
Dementia and hearing protection
Dr Hester said GPs were very aware of the link between hearing and mental health conditions both as a cause and as an effect.
“GPs are a great resource for patients, they are easily accessible, usually the first point of call for patients, and are able to discuss hearing changes in the context of whole-of-person health, which includes mental health,” she said.
Dr Hester said GPs were aware of increasing evidence suggesting possible links between hearing loss and dementia.
“This is why hearing is reviewed at each 75+ health assessment and each Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessment, and earlier for patients reporting cognitive decline or executive function deterioration,” she said.
Doctors would like to spend more time discussing hearing protection, she added.
“GPs widely report that they would love to have more time to spend attending to preventative health with their patients, and this includes discussions around wearing appropriate PPE for work environments,” Dr Hester said.
“The importance of hearing protection is a conversation that I have with my younger patients who are embarking on a new career or apprenticeship as I consider this cohort to be particularly vulnerable, but it’s something that should be provided by employers with workplace occupational assessments and workplace health and safety advice.”
Audiologist and ENT referral
She said advising young people and others to turn down the volume in their earbuds, headphones and while listening to music or gaming to help prevent hearing loss was always a good idea.
GPs had sufficient education and CPD about hearing loss as it was part of accepted standards for health assessments and infant health checks.
“A reasonably common and simple issue that is dealt with in general practice, and sometimes the easiest consult of the day, is when a chunk of wax or foreign body removal can provide instant relief for a patient,” she said.
“GPs take presentations around hearing changes in their stride, and are well-placed to provide care for these patients, or direct their patients to the best source of care, be that the local audiologist, or ENT specialist.”
However, she does refer patients to a local audiologist for cerumen removal.
“I almost never refer to an ENT surgeon unless the patient meets the criteria for surgery (which is a small minority of patients) or requires urgent non-GP specialist care such as sudden unilateral hearing loss.,” she said.
“Even then I am often needed to provide the initial treatment while the patient awaits review.”
Opposed to nurse prescribing
Dr Hester is not in favour of registered nurses prescribing antibiotics for otitis media. This may happen under a new regulatory standard that gives prescribing powers to registered nurses who undergo specific training.
“This is not a good idea,” she said. “Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics is a major global health challenge and wanton prescribing of antibiotics results in patients suffering considerable harm when antibiotics are no longer effective against infections.
“GPs know that uncomplicated otitis media very rarely necessitates the use of antibiotics, and our advice to parents centres around comfort care, and red-flags for escalation.”
