Confused, fragmented and constantly changing advice issued to GPs dealing with patients with suspected coronavirus has led to fresh demands for a national system for infectious disease outbreaks.

State, territory and federal health agencies have provided conflicting guidance on SARS-Cov-2 (formerly 2019-nCov) ranging from whether patients should be tested in GP clinics to what protective equipment doctors require when taking swabs.

RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon says it has exposed another major failure in Australia’s public health response, which could be fixed by a centralised authority.

“It has taken too long for state health agencies to update their advice in line with the federal advice. GPs have faced weeks of confusion trying to figure out which guidelines they should follow,” he says.