RACGP President meets with Health Minister to discuss ‘pain points’

The RACGP has laid bare its concerns around the future of general practice in a face-to-face meeting with Australia’s health heavyweights.
 
Visiting Canberra’s Parliament House last week, college President Dr Nicole Higgins met with Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Minister Bill Shorten for an honest, two-way conversation about GP concerns.
 
‘We don’t always agree with the Government’s decisions, but we need to be part of this reform process,’ Dr Higgins told newsGP.
 
‘We’ve got a really good working relationship with Minister Butler and his office, and that’s been reflected in our ability to meet regularly and to have a two-way dialogue.’
 
Across the course of the meeting, the RACGP raised the Medicare assignment of benefit for bulk-billed telehealth and the worry its caused GPs, as well as payroll tax reforms currently causing widespread concern and frustration.
 
They also discussed five new, nurse-led urgent care clinics recently opened in the Australian Capital Territory, and its broader messaging. 
 
‘This is sending the wrong message to GPs because we’ve been working really hard to work in multidisciplinary care teams and then to have urgent care centres without GP involvement was not how we’d been working together,’ Dr Higgins said.
 
‘They acknowledged that and said that their preferred model is GP-led, so we’ll continue working with that.’
 
In conversation with Minister Shorten, Dr Higgins said she advocated for the need for GPs to be more involved in the NDIS rollout and how they can better help those who use it.
 
‘GPs were not included in the design of the NDIS and that has a huge impact on patients and GPs,’ she said.
 
‘GPs are essential to the process, and moving forward, we spoke about how we can get the reforms to incorporate GPs into planning, services, and coordination and continuity of care.’
 
The meeting occurred amid the backdrop of significant planned reforms of Australia’s health system, with the recent introduction of MyMedicare and Minister Butler’s frequent references to healthcare workers reaching their ‘top of scope’.
 
The ‘Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce Review‘, announced last month, is aimed at ensuring Australia is optimising the skills and training of its medical professionals.
 
Dr Higgins said she spoke with Minister Butler about GPs’ scope of practice, their extensive medical training, and the current barriers stopping them reaching their full potential as healthcare professionals.
 
‘GPs have the same first eight years of training as our cardiologists, as brain surgeons, and psychiatrists, and then we branch off into the community and they branch off into their area,’ she said.
 
‘So those first eight years of common training is what gives us the depth and breadth to practice at the top of our scope.
 
‘The biggest barrier that we face – it’s not our training – it’s legislation, regulatory barriers, it’s red tape.’
 
And at a time when GPs are facing burnout, workforce shortages and rising costs, Dr Higgins said the meeting left her hopeful for the future.
 
‘Yes, we are being heard. Yes, we are at the table at a time when the profession is going undergoing huge change, and future reform,’ she said.
 
‘We must be able to keep the Government accountable, and there’s sometimes tension in the relationship, but it’s a healthy tension.’
 
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