Growing healthcare trends indicate a bleak picture of Australian healthcare in the future, unless the Federal Government urgently and substantially invests in general practice.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) President-elect Dr Harry Nespolon has today displayed a grim picture of what general practice will look like in 2020, with a declining bulk billing rate and patient out of pocket costs of over $40 per visit.
“General practice is the cornerstone of Australians’ healthcare, unfortunately it continues to be taken for granted by governments,” Dr Nespolon said.
“GPs are passionate about delivering quality healthcare. Without a significant increase to the rebate and real results from the MBS review, I am concerned about what the patient experience will look like in the near future.
“Patients want to spend more time with their GP, and it has been shown that the more time a patient spends with their GP the better their long-term health will be. More effort must be made to keep patients out of hospitals and protected from costly out of pocket expenses.”
“Although we welcome the return of yearly indexation of patient Medicare rebates, it still does not catch general practice up on the past five years, which has seen an erosion of the patient rebate in real terms. We believe that urgent investment is required.
“In addition to the impact of the freeze, the reality is, long and complex consultations are not properly supported through Medicare rebates.
“When a GP has the proper amount of time with a patient, we are able to properly treat the whole patient”.
“The RACGP has been working with the Federal Government for years to increase the access to and affordability of general practice for Australian patients.
“An extra 10-30 minutes in a GP consultation, particularly for patients with chronic and complex needs, can mean that a condition is identified earlier or health risks, like obesity and mental health issues, receive proper preventive treatment before a patient ends up with a more serious lifelong condition.”