The RACGP announced its own revised plan for governments to address the current health crisis on 23 January 2023, stressing the need for urgent action and ensuring that GP stewardship of patient care in the community is central to any long-term reforms.
And while the College said it was pleased that Australia’s leaders recognised the need for reform, they also expressed concern that the proposed overhaul will not go far enough to improve the situation for patients and may make matters worse.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins explained that because one person needs to be responsible for managing a patient’s care and GPs are best placed to do this.
“We have seen other countries such as the United Kingdom try to address GP shortages by broadening delivery of primary care to other health professionals – this approach failed to meaningfully improve patient health and wellbeing,” Dr Higgins said.
“Instead, it further fragmented the health system, which leads to worse health outcomes, inefficiencies, and wastage.
*Which does not bode well for Australia considering the inflammatory comments recently attributed to the Pharmacy Guild.
“GPs are best placed to manage patient care because we have the required training and expertise in generalist care and diagnostics. The evidence shows seeing the same GP over time leads to fewer hospital visits, lower mortality, and reduced costs to the health budget.”
“We need to get any long-term reform right; Band-Aid solutions will not work. That means serious investment in general practice care and building the role of GPs as the stewards of patient care in multidisciplinary teams.
“All the evidence shows that this will improve the health of Australians and reduce spending on expensive hospital care, it just makes sense,” she said.
“We need GPs working hand in glove with allied health professionals, pharmacists, and practice nurses, and they should be supported within general practice, with GPs working as the stewards of patient care.”
The RACGP is also calling for:
- Improved access to care by tripling bulk billing incentives
- Increasing Medicare rebates for longer, complex consultations by 20%
- Funding enhanced primary care services for people over 65, with mental health conditions and a disability
- Funding patients to see their GP after an unplanned hospital visit
- Boosting the GP workforce by fast-tracking entry for international doctors and re-instating the subsidy for their training
- Supporting junior doctors to intern in general practice
- And introducing payroll tax exemption for independent tenant GPs to prevent more practices closing
The Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mr Mark Butler, acknowledged the RACGP’s position on payroll tax in comments made during a press conference later that day.
“As you know, payroll tax issues are a matter for state governments. There have been developments over the last 12 or 24 months at different state levels about the treatment by state treasuries or state tax offices of general practice, [and] I have been watching those,” he said.
“I have had some communication with the College of General Practice, as I think the new President indicated this morning would be the would be the case. We are trying to make time to speak over the next few days.”
*Ed note.