The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed the Federal Government’s Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Taskforce report on urgent after‑hours primary care services but says there is still work to be done to ensure Australian patients always receive high quality after-hours care.
RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel said the RACGP supports the Taskforce findings that urgent after-hours Medicare items have been used support the delivery of comparatively low value medical care and do not always represent value for money for the taxpayer.
“After-hours service providers must deliver high quality services for patients and make better use of Medicare rebates for taxpayers,” Dr Seidel said.
“We have long held concerns about the state of after-hours care, so we applaud the findings as a positive first step in a larger process.
“The Department of Health and RACGP must now work together to find a solution that will ensure patients receive sustainable, high quality after-hours primary care.”
Dr Seidel emphasised that it was time to focus on supporting quality access to after-hours primary care services.
“It is vital patients have access to after-hours primary care services, they have an important role to play in our healthcare system” Dr Seidel said.
“After-hours home visits should only be provided by specialist general practitioners, or doctors’ actively working towards specialist recognition as a general practitioner.
“The findings released today have certainly brought us a step closer to achieving this.”
“We look forward to working closely with the Department of Health and all after-hours service providers to ensure any changes made do not have unintended consequences on appropriate patient access to high-quality primary care services in the after-hours period,” Dr Seidel said.