Our primary healthcare system's under investigation - by a team of researchers wanting to find out just how effective it is

The Health Research Council's granted just under five million dollars for a five-year study by a team of Victoria University-led researchers.

The programme will look at the current models of delivering health services through primary health care providers such as GPs, nursing clinics and pharmacies.

Part of the study will track how many patients are visiting GPs, and how many times, to see if there's a relationship between good access to primary health care and hospitalisations.