Real Action to Support General Practice

A Coalition Government will provide funding of $833 million to support GPs and boost Medicare to help ensure families have better access to after hours care, more preventative health care and better chronic disease management.

These initiatives will reduce pressure on public hospital emergency departments by better utilising GP services around the country.

The Coalition will invest $165 million to boost after hours GP services. This includes $140 million to increase after hours Medicare rebates and $25 million to retain and strengthen the After Hours Practice Incentive Payment. The Coalition wants to encourage more GP clinics to remain open after hours and on weekends.

The COAG Reform Council reported that 42.5 per cent of all work in emergency departments is from patients who could have seen a GP. Providing incentives to provide after hours services will relieve some of the pressure on our hospitals.

We will boost Medicare to support GPs providing better chronic and complex care by providing $350 million to increase rebates for longer GP consultations. Level C and D general practice consultation rebates will increase because of the complexity of the consultation required. This investment will better recognise the time GPs spend with patients who have complex and chronic conditions.

The Coalition will invest in Medicare rebates for practice nurses by committing $115 million to increase and expand related rebates. Practice nurses can provide valuable additional clinical care for patients, particularly those with complex needs.

In addition to this $835 million investment, we will protect and maintain the $437 million of support for practice nurses that the Rudd-Gillard Government plans to strip out of Medicare for these services.

The Coalition will improve the timeliness of diagnosis and treatment by implementing general practice referrals for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) according to best practice. These referrals currently have to be made by a specialist. We will work with the AMA, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and will commit $3 million to develop appropriate referral protocols and criteria.

The Coalition will provide $200 million for GP Infrastructure Grants. Existing GP clinics will be able to apply for grants of up to $250,000 for infrastructure projects such as rooms for additional doctors and training, expansion of integrated allied health services and multidisciplinary care including practice nurses, and extending after hours opening times.

Criteria for the grants will be developed in consultation with the AMA and Royal College of General Practitioners. The Coalition believes in working with GPs to better support existing services, not set up government-run clinics in competition with them.

The Rudd-Gillard Government has undermined Medicare and increased out of pocket costs for many Australians. They have failed to deliver on their promise of delivering ‘GP Super Clinics’ and have moved to cut Medicare support for cataract surgery, diabetes treatment and mental health.

In Government, the Coalition will support general practice and once again be the best friend that Medicare has ever had. Funding for these measures will come from redirected Rudd-Gillard Government National Health and Hospital Networks funding.