gp visits dive

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/gp-visits-dive-ahead-of-looming-7-copayment/story-fn59nokw-1226926630339

just goes to show, a lot of doctor visits are just social calls


MEDICAL practices are already reporting plunging demand for GP consultations, with one surgery in western Sydney reporting a 50 per cent drop in appointments in recent days, the Australian Medical Association says.

AMA president Steve Hambleton said that practice, in Mount Druitt, resorted to sending out SMS messages to patients to inform them that the Coalition’s $7 co-payment for GP visits is not slated for introduction until July next year.

The measure, described by the government as “a modest price signal”, is designed to dissuade patients from claiming Medicare benefits for unnecessary consultations.

“It’s localised, but there’s been some reports from western Sydney and now another one from Tasmania suggesting that there has been some reduction in presentations at GP practices,” Dr Hambleton told The Australian.

“I’ve checked with my colleagues and we haven’t had a corresponding rise in presentations to hospitals so, at the moment, we’re just observing what’s going on.”

“A short dip doesn’t give us a prediction of what the outcome (of this policy) is going to be, but a long dip certainly would.

Dr Hambleton urged the government to revise its proposal, but said the AMA was “not against a co-payment per se”.

“There are some low income earners and there’s a few groups that are pretty obvious — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the seriously mentally unwell and the aged — that we’re concerned about,” Dr Hambleton said.

“It’s only a small number, and I wasn’t going to mention it except that it’s now come from two different states.”

Labor frontbencher Matt Thistlethwaite said the AMA reports confirmed anecdotal reports he had received from GPs in his southern Sydney electorate of Kingsford Smith “of patients cancelling appointments, particularly pensioners who are confused”.

“This is a precursor to the behavioural change we will see if a Medicare co-payment is introduced,” he told Sky News.

Liberal senator Zed Seselja said the policy was designed to make Medicare sustainable for the coming decades.

“Going on anecdotal reports it’s impossible to know exactly each of these individuals as to whether it is people who don’t need to go the doctor,” he told Sky News.

Senator Seselja cited the National Commission of Audit chairman Tony Shepherd’s claim that Australians visit the doctor on average 11 times per year, repeated by Treasurer Joe Hockey during ABC’s Q&A program on Monday.

However OECD figures show Australians averaged 6.9 doctors’ consultations in 2012, which Labor says is “bang on” the average for developed nations.