Roxon looking to reallocate GP tasks

Simone Roberts

Health minister Nicola Roxon again signalled her intention to reallocate certain GP tasks to other health professionals in a speech at the annual Ben Chifley Memorial "Light on the Hill" Dinner in Bathurst on Saturday night. She outlined her vision for a health sector in which services are delivered not only by doctors, but by other members of the health care team who are "safe, potentially cheaper, and most importantly, available".

"Our health system, including funding for health services, is organised almost entirely around doctors, despite the fact that many services are now safely and ably provided by other health professionals – nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, dieticians and others," she said.

Ms Roxon criticised the current Medicare structure which rewards a GP for seeing as many patients as possible rather than seeing fewer patients for longer periods.

"In other words, there is a financial disincentive for GPs to provide the type of longer, intensive visit that prevention demands – like teaching somebody how to lose weight, keep fit, and avoid diabetes.

"At the same time, a GP stands to benefit equally from providing care that demands their complex knowledge and training, and a simple act like refilling a prescription for, say, the birth control pill – an extremely economically inefficient proposition!"

The minister said there needs to be an incentive for doctors to relinquish some of their less complex work that others can perform or if they don’t want to let go of it, accept being paid less.

Last month Ms Roxon voiced her support for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia's medication continuance program under which pharmacists would deliver some basic health screening functions, and under certain conditions, fill repeat prescriptions.