The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed the commitment from the Federal Opposition to work with GPs to find an urgent solution to the Medicare funding debacle.
The RACGP is focused on galvanising the support of all political parties and has already had a conversation with the Opposition to seek a solution following the Government’s Budget announcement to extend the Medicare patient rebate freeze until 2020.
RACGP President Dr Frank R Jones said the profession has consistently endorsed the viewpoint that an ongoing freeze of MBS items for general practice has negative impacts in the provision of quality patient care.
“Reversing the freeze on MBS indexation is absolutely essential to maintaining high quality healthcare services,” Dr Jones said.
“The RACGP will continue its efforts to work in collaboration with all parties and relevant stakeholders to reverse the MBS freeze, in order maintain Australia's world class health system.”