Happy Friday! And Happy (belated) World Family Doctor Day. On Tuesday this week, it was a chance to acknowledge the role GPs play at the very centre of our healthcare system.
Right around the world, including here at home, family doctors are skilled and trusted to provide essential continuity of care from pregnancy through childhood, adulthood and into aged care. Strong general practice care delivers Australians cost-effective healthcare, treats illnesses early and avoids unnecessary hospitalisations.
A big thank you to all our GPs out there for everything you do.
This week felt a bit like a clash of the ages for me. On one hand, I spent a few days in Melbourne for the Digital Health Festival, catching up on all the latest and greatest in e-health. Needless to say, AI was a key theme! There seems to be an AI solution for whatever problem ails you…and while this poses some great opportunities, I think we also need to be ever-mindful of patient safety, patient choice and consent, and not further fragmenting healthcare with siloed, disease-specific solutions. Nevertheless, it was a buzzing, uplifting few days full of excitement about the future of medicine, and the digital tools to support it.
And yet, throughout all of that, I spent much of my time in and out of the conference on media calls about the diphtheria outbreak spreading across the country. Diphtheria is an illness most of our country hasn’t given much thought to since immunisations began in the 1930s. And this is our largest outbreak since records began some decades ago. Sadly, one life has been lost, and over 200 cases identified. The first public health priority is of course working with affected Indigenous communities to get them the healthcare, treatments and immunisations they need. But the media interest in this outbreak is a strong reminder to the whole community that illnesses may be forgotten, but can always stage a comeback, and that immunisation remains our best protection. We continue to remind the community to have the JABchat with their GP — that conversation to answer questions or concerns about immunisation and to get qualified, personalised advice for them and their families.
We also continued our advocacy this week in standing up for our non-GP specialists, who are the subject of a blame game with spurious claims of fee gouging and greed. This cheap shot to make doctors political scapegoats is an issue we will not be going quiet on.
The overwhelming majority of doctors charge at or below the AMA fee. The reality is the gap between the cost of delivering care and under-indexed and frozen Medicare rebates has widened. As a result, rebates cover a much smaller share of care costs, leading to higher out-of-pocket expenses for patients. For more information to help explain to your patients, colleagues and local politicians why there is a gap, we have developed resources, including our Medicare Gaps Poster .
In case you missed it, catch up on a great article posted to our LinkedIn newsletter page by AMA member, Associate Professor Vinay Rane, who eloquently articulated the high costs facing specialists — indemnity insurance, rent, staff remuneration and the many small but essential costs of modern medicine — that all add up to half a million dollars before any patients walk through the door.
This week our VP Julian Rait and I attended an Out-of-Pocket Transparency Consultation Forum on changes to the Medical Cost Finder website. This meeting was the result of our strong criticism of the consultation to date, and advocacy to ensure that we are at the table on your behalf as changes to the MCF website are designed and implemented. We’ll be there to ensure the methodology is sound and that the data presented is accurate, meaningful and limits unintended outcomes, and that there are transparent processes should members have concerns about data presented.
And to round things out, I attended the biannual meeting of the strengthening Medicare implementation oversight committee — a fancy name for an update on where the department is heading on primary care investments and reforms. It was another opportunity to raise concerns about the fragmented implementation of urgent care centres, but to also receive updates on programs like the 1800Medicare app, mental health and suicide prevention programs, workforce planning, and interesting consumer research from Consumer Health Forum (CHF). The cost of healthcare hitting Australians did feature in this report, with respondents reporting missing scripts, tests or appointments due to cost. But it also showed that most respondents who hold private health insurance do so for “peace of mind” but that those who don’t hold insurance find the premiums too expensive. This supports our calls for a review of PHI settings so that it provides more transparent value for money to more Australians. The CHF research also confirmed that 80 per cent of the population sees a GP each year, and that 87.8 per cent visit a regular GP or practice.
Which brings us right back around to family doctor day. Australians visit GPs more than any other health profession, and value the continuity of care which comes from having a regular family doctor.
Have a great weekend everyone. See you next week!
