More patients, especially younger people, are skipping GP appointments owing to cost-of-living pressures, reveal Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

One in seven patients aged 24-35 reported delaying or not visiting their GP because of cost in 2023/24 compared with one in 10 the previous year.

Across all ages, patients who said they had to forgo seeing their GP as a result of costs went up from 7% to almost 9% over the same period.

And some 11% of those surveyed in the most disadvantaged areas said they had skipped filling prescriptions.