The University of Sydney is looking at ways it can help ensure the continuation of the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) program after its annual funding was unexpectedly cut by the Department of Health.

The university's Family Medicine Research Centre (FMRC), which has run the well-respected study into the clinical activities of GPs for the last 18 years, announced on the weekend that funding from the department would cease on June 30 and the study would have to be shut down.