Perth specialist GP and medical educator Dr Ramya Raman has been elected the next President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, securing an outright majority in a national ballot of eligible members.
Dr Raman was declared President-elect after voting closed at midday on Friday, 21 August 2026, and will formally take over from current RACGP President Dr Michael Wright at the College’s Annual General Meeting on 19 November 2026.
The election result shows Dr Raman received 5,386 votes, ahead of Victorian GP Dr Anita Muñoz on 3,611 and Queensland GP Dr Gavin Colthart on 869.
A total of 9,866 eligible votes were cast from 39,712 ballots issued, representing a turnout of 24.8 per cent. Because Dr Raman secured an absolute majority on first preferences, there was no need for preferences to be distributed.
Her election elevates one of Western Australia’s best-known general practice advocates to the leadership of an organisation representing more than 53,000 members across Australia.
Dr Raman said she was grateful for the confidence placed in her by fellow GPs and pledged to focus on practical changes for doctors, practices and patients.
“Thank you for the trust you have placed in me to serve as RACGP President. I am grateful for the opportunity to represent our profession,” she said in a message to members following the result.
She thanked outgoing President Dr Wright for his leadership and said members had repeatedly raised three broad concerns during the campaign — having a stronger professional voice, ensuring general practice remained financially sustainable and having a College that actively supported GPs.
“My focus will be on tangible outcomes: stronger investment in general practice, better support for practices and our workforce, less unnecessary red tape, protection of specialist GP scope, and a College that is more accountable to its members,” Dr Raman said.
She promised a “practical, collaborative and determined” approach to working with members, governments and other health-sector organisations.
The RACGP said Dr Raman’s presidency would focus on issues including access to care, the financial viability of practices, workforce sustainability, preventive health, education and training, and the longer-term strength of Australia’s primary healthcare system.
Dr Raman is already one of the College’s most senior figures, currently serving as RACGP Vice-President and Chair of RACGP Western Australia.
Originally from Orange in regional New South Wales, she completed her medical training at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle before establishing her career in Western Australia.
She is Director of The Garden Family Medical Clinic in Perth, where she leads a multidisciplinary team, and is also Discipline Head of General Practice at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Medicine in Fremantle.
Her clinical interests include women’s and children’s health, with a particular focus on perinatal health and wellbeing.
Dr Raman was named RACGP WA GP of the Year in 2020 and AMA (WA) Advocate of the Year in 2024. She was also selected as a McKinsey Raising Leaders Forum Scholar in 2022 and has worked as an RACGP clinical supervisor and examiner.
Her links with the Australia-India engagement sector have also formed part of her wider leadership work. The RACGP says Dr Raman represented Australia as a delegate to the Australian Indian Youth Dialogue in 2023.
Her rise through the College has been steady.
Dr Raman became Chair of RACGP Western Australia in November 2021 and was appointed Vice-President in November 2024, placing her alongside Dr Wright in the College’s senior national leadership team.
Dr Wright congratulated his successor, describing her as a highly respected leader with experience in advocacy and collaboration.
He said he had observed Dr Raman’s leadership closely through her work as WA Chair and as his Vice-President and was confident in her ability to lead the College.
Dr Raman will assume the presidency at a time when general practice sits at the centre of major changes to Australia’s healthcare system.
The federal government dramatically expanded bulk-billing incentives from November 2025 and introduced the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program, under which participating practices receive an additional 12.5 per cent incentive payment on eligible Medicare benefits if they bulk bill eligible services for Medicare patients.
By April this year, more than 3,700 practices had registered for the program, while the government reported the national GP bulk-billing rate had risen to 81.4 per cent.
At the same time, concerns remain about whether general practice is attracting and retaining enough doctors to meet the needs of a growing and ageing population, particularly outside major metropolitan centres.
The Commonwealth has committed $606.3 million over four years to expand the GP training pipeline. An additional 200 Commonwealth-funded GP and rural generalist training places commenced in 2026, rising to 300 additional places in 2027 and 400 from 2028. The government says more than 2,000 Commonwealth-funded GP training places will commence annually from 2028.
Those changes mean debates over funding, workforce numbers, Medicare, practice viability and the boundaries of GP practice are likely to dominate Dr Raman’s term.
She has already been an outspoken advocate on questions involving the scope of general practice.
In Western Australia, Dr Raman backed reforms allowing suitably trained GPs to play a larger role in diagnosing and prescribing for ADHD, arguing that patients need better access to ongoing care and calling for greater national consistency between states and territories.
She has also raised concerns about expanding prescribing responsibilities to pharmacists without what she considers sufficient safeguards, particularly in women’s healthcare, arguing that access reforms should not come at the expense of continuity and clinical oversight.
Those positions align closely with one of the promises she made to RACGP members during the presidential campaign — protecting the scope and standing of specialist general practitioners.
The RACGP itself occupies an influential position in Australian healthcare. It sets professional and education standards, delivers GP training, supports doctors through continuing professional development and represents general practice in negotiations and policy debates with federal, state and territory governments.
Its president is therefore one of the most visible national advocates for primary healthcare and regularly deals directly with ministers, government departments, regulators and other medical bodies.
The College’s current advocacy plan identifies the president as the person responsible for leading national advocacy to the federal government, departments, Ahpra, the Medical Board of Australia and other national bodies.
Dr Raman said she wants members to be able to see the practical impact of that advocacy.
“Above all, I want members to see and feel the difference our advocacy makes for your practices, our profession and the patients you care for,” she told colleagues.
Her election also represents a leadership transition after Dr Wright’s two-year presidency, which began in November 2024.
Dr Raman acknowledged that period of reform and said she intended to build on his work while pushing for stronger investment and support for general practice.
The RACGP announcement quoted her describing general practice as the foundation of Australia’s healthcare system and saying GPs needed to be properly valued, funded and supported.
For Dr Raman, the election now shifts the challenge from campaigning among fellow doctors to representing them nationally.
When she assumes office in November, her stated test for the presidency will be a practical one: whether Australia’s GPs believe their College has become a stronger advocate for their practices, their profession and the patients who rely on them.
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