Smoking cessation GP consults skyrocket

New research has revealed the number of patients visiting their GP for help to quit smoking or vaping skyrocketed at a time when cessation counselling Medicare items were in place.
 
Published in the Australian Journal of General Practice, it found a 16-fold rise in patients seeing their GP for cessation counselling between July 2021 and December 2023.
 
In July 2021, the Federal Government added new items to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) to allow for face-to-face and telehealth consults for nicotine and smoking cessation counselling provided by GPs – these temporary items ended in 2023.
 
During this time, GPs provided 188,904 nicotine and smoking cessation counselling sessions.
 
Dr Daniel Bogale Odo, an epidemiologist and the study’s lead researcher said the funding ceased, ‘with the assumption this counselling was embedded in routine practice’.
 
‘But one of the frequently reported barriers to providing nicotine and smoking cessation support in clinical settings is a lack of time,’ he said.
 
‘The increase in the use of these temporarily funded Medicare items could be due to the allocation of adequate time and payment to provide this care.
 
‘The cessation of these services might have had a regressive impact on people who want to quit seeking support from their GP at a time when many changes were occurring in respect of nicotine and tobacco control measures.’
 
As part of the study, researchers examined the use of the temporary MBS nicotine and smoking cessation items processed between July 2021 and December 2023.
 
Of the processed claims, 139,667 were face-to-face, 37,649 were via telephone, and 11,588 were videoconferencing consults.
 
About 91% of the claims in the face-to-face services were made by GPs in an appointment under 20 minutes duration, and 81% of telephone services.
 
‘One of the frequently reported barriers to the delivery of smoking cessation support in clinical settings is a lack of time,’ the study said.
 
‘The most important finding was the high and continual increase in the rate of claims processed for services provided face-to-face, which might suggest that the majority of services were conducted and claimed by the patients’ usual practices.
 
‘The cessation of these services might have had a regressive impact on people seeking quitting support from their GP at a time when many changes were occurring in respect of nicotine and tobacco control measures.’
 
Moving forward, the study called for the monitoring and evaluation of smoking and nicotine cessation as part of routine care.
 
‘General practice has a crucial role to play in supporting people to quit smoking and/or vaping with or without dedicated MBS item numbers,’ it concludes.
 
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said smoking cessation must remain an urgent public health priority.
 
‘This study shows the difference embedding smoking and vaping cessation in routine care makes in people’s lives,’ he said.
 
‘Smoking cessation is only one area where patients may need longer consults with their GP.
 
‘Australia should have a health system that supports our patients to access affordable long consults with their GP when they need them.’
 
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MBS Medicare Benefits Schedule smoking smoking cessation vaping