The head of the RACGP in WA has labelled a letter campaign by Labor MPs targeting GP clinics that have not taken up the federal government’s bulk billing incentive program as “political theatre”.
Many Labor MPs have sent letters to their constituents urging them to provide details of local practices that had not signed up to the incentive program.
A number of WA GP clinics have received follow up letters from those MPs urging them to join the program and offer all patients bulk billed consultations.
RACGP Vice President and WA Chair Dr Ramya Raman told Medical Forum she was “deeply concerned” by the tactic saying it failed to address the structural issues.
“That is what I’d call political theatre,” she said.
“It shifts the responsibility onto GP’s while ignoring that there is a structural problem, which is Medicare rebates no longer covering the costs of delivering the care.”
Dr Raman said conversations needed to be had not through a series of letters but between elected representatives, GPs and stakeholders such as the College.
She said GPs and practice managers who had received letters from MPs urging them to move to 100% bulk billed models had expressed deep concern and disappointment.
“They also question whether that money could be used in a better way,” Dr Raman said.
She said members of the public in WA first started receiving the letters in December.
“It’s deeply uncomfortable, officials writing to general practices asking them to change how we bill or how practices would be billing.
“Bulk billing is not a switch we refuse to turn on or off as these letters may imply, it’s a function of the funding system that’s been left behind.”
Financial viability has been one of the reasons put forward as to why some clinics would choose not to sign up to the incentives program.
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“The cost of running a practice has risen significantly and Medicare rebates have not kept pace with the cost of delivering the quality of care needed,” Dr Raman said.
“Now practices are left with the impossible choice of needing to shorten appointments, absorb the losses, or charge appropriately to remain viable to keep the doors open.”
She said bulk billing in its current form was not a good marker for good will.
“It’s a marker for whether the system is adequately funded, the reality is the consultations are actually becoming longer,” she said.
“If there is a patient who is coming to see me, I’m not going to cut them off, I’m going to actually spend the time to work through their concerns as their family doctor to ensure they have better health outcomes.
“We know that more than 50% of our population have chronic conditions, so when that is the case, the consultations became longer. We are calling on increasing the Medicare rebate for the longer consultations so that there is a better rebate for the patient.”
Dr Raman reminded MPs that GPs were also part of the constituencies they represent and part of the frontline workforce delivering healthcare to the state and country.
“We need to be respected as equal constituents within the community rather than causing a rift between us and our patients,” she said.
Medical Forum put a number of questions to Health Minister Mark Butler about the letters and the RACGP’s calls to address the wider structural issues.
The minister did not directly address concerns about Medicare rebates not keeping pace with the cost of delivering GP services but said local MPs are speaking to doctors in their communities about the benefits of bulk billing.
Medical Forum put to the minister concerns that GPs felt disappointed and the letters could cause a rift between doctors and patients, but he did not respond.
He instead provided an update on the number of practices providing 100% bulk billing in Australia, which has risen by about 300 in the past month to more than 3,700.
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