General Practice

By Dr Brian MortonThe AMA this month released its Federal Budget Submission for 2012-13.  The AMA’s key message to Government is that the next Federal Budget must recognise and appropriately fund those parts of the health system that work well and that communities rely on. 

I am delighted that the AMA has once again recognised that general practice is a fundamental pillar of the health system, with improved support for GPs being a key focus of the AMA submission.

Supporting existing general practices to enhance their capacity to deliver care to the community and to teach and train tomorrow’s GPs is, in the AMA’s view, a more effective use of funding than the direction of millions of dollars to a few ‘super’ clinics. 

The AMA has again recommended that the Government redirect funding for unfinalised or not fully supported GP Super Clinics into GP infrastructure grants.  We also want 575 more grants (at around $300,000 each) to fund general practice to deliver expanded services, as well as improved subsidy arrangements to encourage more training to take place in general practice.

With GPs recognised as a core part of the general mental health workforce and the management of chronic and complex disease a key part of general practice, the AMA has called for funding to better support these activities.  The Government needs to put back into general practice the funding it ‘saved’ from last year’s cuts to GP mental health items.

We are already seeing the impact of these cuts with a decrease in the number of GP mental health services.  The AMA has also called for existing Medicare arrangements to be enhanced to facilitate streamlined and improved GP-coordinated access to allied health and support services for patiens with chronic and complex care needs.

Considering that the real value of Medicare rebates for patients has not kept pace with the increasing cost of running medical practices, the AMA has recommended the Government to index all MBS items, including Non VR GP services, in line with the Labour Price Index and the CPI to better reflect the costs involved in providing medical services.  The AMA has also recognised the need to increase funding for providing out of rooms consultations to older people living in aged care facilities and in the community. 

Further, Telehealth could enable GPs to efficiently service specific patient groups, such as the house bound residents of aged care facilities and rural and remote patients.  For this reason and the enhanced access to care it provides, the AMA has called for MBS telehealth items to be extended to GP consultations for these patient groups.

In addition, to ensure that e-health initiatives deliver on the potential for improved safety and quality of medical care, the AMA has called for Shared Electronic Health Records to be reliable, relevant, aligned with clinical workflows, integrated with medical practice software, governed by a single entity, fully funded by Government, and supported by appropriate incentives.

The AMA is looking to Government to ensure that general practice is supported in its pivotal role of caring for the community.