The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says figures released by The Australian Health Policy Collaboration at Victoria University emphasise the vital need for State and Federal Governments to re-evaluate their healthcare priorities to ensure all Australians have equal access to excellent medical care.
RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel said data captured in the national Australian Health Tracker report card shows that far more needs to be done to reduce healthcare inequality currently seen across Australian socio-economic groups.
“Low socio-economic status should never be a major risk factor for poor health,” Dr Seidel said.
“All Australians must have access to the best medical care available and these figures reveal this is currently not the case.”
Dr Seidel said ensuring every Australian could easily access a regular GP would substantially reduce disparities between socio-economic groups. Dr Seidel said ever increasing out of pocket costs when visiting a GP was resulting in patients delaying or avoiding visits altogether.
“Out of pocket costs are increasing,” Dr Seidel said.
“If visits to the GP are not better supported, for many Australians they will become unaffordable.”
The RACGP’s 2017 General Practice: Health of the Nation report revealed Australian GPs considered Medicare rebates as the number one health policy issue requiring immediate federal government action to ensure access to high quality healthcare is maintained.
“Every day GPs are seeing the affect the Medicare rebate freeze has had on Australian patients,” Dr Seidel said.
“Health is essential for all Australians but this freeze has meant more and more patients simply cannot pay the price for health.
“Wealth must never determine health”
Dr Seidel urged the Government to develop policies that will address socio-economic disadvantage and contribute directly to a more prosperous, productive and healthy nation.
“This means recommitting to general practice.
“If we look at the substantial international evidence, health systems focusing on primary healthcare have better health outcomes compared with health systems focused on specialist care.
“All Australian patients want health, not necessarily treatment, and GPs always want to do the right thing by their patients.
“Our politicians must foster that relationship to improve health outcomes for all.”