Are you ready for the Auditor - AMA WA

The Federal
Government
undermines
General Practice yet again
Just when GPs thought they had some respite from the
financial undermining of their practices, they have woken to
find that the nightmare continues with yet another savaging
by the Federal Government’s budget cuts. It wasn’t enough
to throw hundreds of millions of dollars into super clinics
recognised to be a failed market model, or the massive cutback
to the GP mental health items undermining GPs’
capacity to care for vulnerable patients who required access
to urgent mental health care. This Federal budget again
gouged millions out of General Practice and yet expects GPs
to perform even greater miracles in public health and chronic
disease management. The Federal AMA President, Dr Steve
Hambleton, is absolutely right when he says that the Federal
budget cuts to Practice Incentive Payments (PIP) to GPs
will have a double-negative impact on the health system by
penalising GPs for not meeting new higher targets for Cervical
Cancer Screening and Specialised Diabetes Care, and
removing incentives for immunisation. He also emphasised
that these measures, along with changes to e-health (PIP),
have the potential to pose serious public health risks by
undermining successful preventative health programs that are
providing health benefits to many Australians.
The Federal Government has, in successive terms,
harangued the medical profession and screamed from the rooftops
about championing preventative health as well as being a
world leader in electronic health. All well and good. However,
they appear determined to abrogate their responsibility for
ensuring that these laudable objectives become reality by
undermining, rather than resourcing and supporting, GPs and
their practices. As the Federal AMA President has presciently
stated, “the Government will …also place an even greater
burden on the engine room of the Australian health system –
hardworking GPs in suburbs in towns and across the country.”
The grab from General Practice by the Federal
Government is a claw-back of spending from GPs to fund its
own areas of perceived
priority, which include
a stumbling e-health.
The scrapping of the GP
Immunisation Incentive
Scheme is public health
vandalism, and the initial
financial assessment of its impact
could mean practitioners losing up to $4,500, not to mention
the important public health/ preventative health measure that
is being undermined. All this is part of a range of controversial
changes to the Practice Incentive Program which are expected
to save around $83.5 million dollars over the next four years.
This program, which has enabled General Practice to ensure
that more than 90% of child patients are fully immunised,
putting Australia amongst the world leaders in immunisation,
is now under threat. The herd protection threatened for a
small saving.
The penalties continue under the Federal Government’s
new arrangements. GPs will be penalised if they fail to
meet new, higher targets of Cervical Cancer Screening and
Specialised Diabetes Care. GPs will have to ensure that 70%
of eligible female patients are given pap smears, a 5% increase,
as well as preparing care plans for at least 50% of diabetic
patients, which is up from the previous 40% required. And
just when the profession has convinced the Government that
telehealth was a cost-effective way of managing the patient’s
health care, the Federal Government budget has responded
by introducing major changes to this initiative, including
scrapping the telehealth Support Initiative from July next year
Continued on page 36
34 MEDICUS May