Almost one-quarter of Australians over 45 skipped seeing their GP even if they felt they needed to go, often because they couldn’t get an appointment, a report shows.

Access and cost are the two main reasons patients failed to visit their GP, despite wanting to go, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report shows.

Half of those who reported a time when they felt they needed to visit their GP, but didn’t, said they couldn’t get an appointment.

And almost one in five (18%) said they didn’t go because they were unable to afford the fees, according to the AIHW report that analysed data from the 2016 Survey of Health Care, which focused on those aged over 45 who had seen a GP between November 2014 and November 2015.