Future of general practice care is unsustainable: says RACGP

THE ROYAL Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has urged government to secure the future of general practice care so that no patients anywhere in Australia are left behind.

It comes via the college’s General Practice: Health of the Nation 2022 report, an annual health check-up on general practice in Australia.

RACGP President Adj. Professor Karen Price has called for urgent action to address the challenges confronting general practice.

“The future of general practice care is in crisis and it’s not of our making,” she said.

“If general practice were a patient, I would say that it had several serious underlying health conditions that if not properly addressed will lead to grim outcomes.

“Unless things change, more and more practices will face the impossible decision of hiking fees for patients or closing up shop. Just 13.8 per cent of future doctors are choosing general practice as their career and sourcing and retaining GPs has now become the highest priority challenge reported by practice owners in 2022.

“The primary reason GPs choose to bulk bill is because their patients, especially those with multiple serious health conditions, cannot afford to pay.

“Urgent action is needed to give general practice an immediate restoration of funds lost through the Medicare rebate freeze plus an appropriate further investment and rebalancing of health system funding.”

The RACGP President also called for government to ease the excessive administrative burden on general practice.

“Let’s cut the red tape and let our GPs and general practice teams get on with the job of doing what we do best – providing world-class care to our patients,” she said.

The Sentinel-Times caught up with Federal Member for Monash Russell Broadbent MP to understand how the Federal Government was tackling the growing problem.

“I addressed the Parliament on the issue a couple of weeks ago,” Mr Broadbent said.

“It’s one of the most serious issues that my electorates face, and so too the regional electorates across Australia.

“The first thing the Labor government did was reverse the program we put in place to encourage GPs and international GPs to come to country Victoria and Australia; so, they could get GPs into closer regional areas and city centres, in other words, into their electorates.

“That means those doctors can now apply to go out of country areas straight into regional areas, and one of the regional areas they’ve nominated is Frankston.

“Because of the shortage of GPs everywhere the impact is greatest on areas like Monash and Gippsland. We have a real problem.

“We haven’t gotten enough GPs, and the GPs we have are aging, and because of all the pressures that have come through COVID they’re retiring early, and places like Moe can’t get GPs at all.”

The delays in accessing GP appointments are also having a flow on effect, as Russell highlighted.

“If you’ve got to wait four weeks and you’ve got bronchitis, you’re not in good nick – so you end up going straight to hospital, which puts enormous pressure on the hospitals.

“This is not unique to us, this is in every regional electorate right around Australia, which has been the discussion of the Parliament the last few weeks.”

To stand up for change write to your Labor Senator or to Russell Broadbent MP.