March 2015

Costs associated with good quality healthcare continue to rise and private health insurance members will again feel the impact when premiums increase by an average of 6.18% tomorrow. The cost of providing quality care is also rising for GPs, who are facing a Federal Government-imposed freeze on rebates, as well as the subsequent dilemma of how to meet rising costs without forcing patients to pay more. A freeze on indexation for patient rebates in general practice has been in place since July 2014. In comparison, private health insurance premiums ri...

The RACGP will tomorrow be part of a roundtable discussion on sexual harassment in the medical profession, hosted by the Australian Medical Association (AMA). The RACGP maintains that sexual harassment, sexism and any form of bullying is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated anywhere in the medical profession or any other workplace. The discussion will consider the existing legal framework, processes for dealing with sexual harassment and why they may not be working, and steps the profession can take to address the issue. A wide rang...

The RACGP is pleased to announce the 2015.1 Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) results are now available online. Candidates can access their results by logging in to the  RACGP website . The 2015.1 Key Feature Problems (KFP) exam results will be released on Thursday 23 April. For any enquiries, please contact the RACGP on 1800 626 901 or via email at  racgpeducation@racgp.org.au

Refugees have complex and diverse healthcare needs. Newly arrived refugees have a higher prevalence of psychological disorders as a consequence of forced dislocation, prolonged repression and/or family separation. The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) health assessment for refugees is a service provided to refugees within the first 12 months of arrival or grant of visa. Understanding the components of the health assessment will enable you to develop a detailed history, identify immediate and long-term healthcare needs, and initiate appropriate treatme...

Statistics emerged this week showing that two in three Australians are on the road to developing heart disease, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), two in three Australian adults have at least three or more risk factors for these diseases, including smoking, consuming too much alcohol, not eating enough fruit and vegetables, being overweight or obese and having high blood pressure. The report,  Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease-Australian facts: Risk facto...

World Family Doctor Day will be held on Tuesday May 19. To celebrate and share the incredible work of GPs, the RACGP has launched a social media campaign that asks GPs to state why they chose general practice as a career, using the dedicated hashtag #IchoseGP. The RACGP has developed posters for GPs to display in practice waiting rooms and graphics to share online, including Facebook and Twitter cover photos, all of which are available on the RACGP website.  There is also a poster for GPs to download that reads ‘#IchoseGP because … ’ . We want GPs...

A dedicated group of medical writers and editors have been undertaking the triennial review of  The RACGP Curriculum for Australian General Practice 2011 . The aims of the review are to complete the conversion of the curriculum to a competency-based framework, reduce duplication and increase relevance to all stakeholders. Approximately 200 organisations and individuals have been identified to provide their views on the revised curriculum and the RACGP is now seeking stakeholder feedback. The review process and information on how to provide feedbac...

Over the past three weeks, the RACGP’s In Practice poll asked readers whether patient care had been affected by changes prohibiting patients from claiming Medicare benefits for general consultation and chronic disease management (CDM) on the same day. The results show that the new restrictions to same billing have significantly impacted patients and practice flow. Only 5% of poll respondents believe the changes to CDM billing have had little or no impact to their practice. A minority of 15% of poll participants indicated that they ask patients to r...