Tasmania to roll out new GP bulk-billing clinics

Tasmanian patients will soon have access to five new GP bulk-billing clinics, following election promises from the state’s major parties on Sunday.
 
Under an initiative branded ‘TassieDoc’, Labor Leader Dean Winter says his party will open the new, 100% bulk-billed general practices if it is successful at the upcoming State Election.
 
The Liberal Party swiftly matched the pledge, meaning the new clinics are on the way regardless of who forms Government.
 
Under Labor’s proposal, five TassieDoc clinics will be established in the state’s north, north-west and south, with the first to open by the end of 2025.
 
Each will be staffed by four full-time equivalent GPs, working as independent contractors and paid through Medicare.
 
The clinics will have extended opening hours, including evenings and weekends, to improve accessibility for working families and people with complex schedules.
 
Labor says, where possible, the clinics will be established within existing state-owned facilities, and the State Government will provide clinic space and cover administrative costs and overheads, including nursing and support staff.
 
‘We will provide the clinics and the consulting rooms, they will be staffed by GPs who will 100% bulk bill, and all Tasmanians will need is their Medicare card,’ Mr Winter said.
 
‘Tasmanians need cost of living relief and more access to healthcare. This plan from Labor will deliver both.’
 
He said each clinic would provide 20,000 bulk-billed appointments a year, delivering a total of 100,000 extra bulk-billed appointments annually.
 
RACGP Deputy Chair Dr Tim Jones backs the Labor proposal, but said it would ‘absolutely not’ force GPs to bulk bill, and that GPs can choose how they bill patients.
 
‘Labor would just be working with the local Primary Health Network to identify areas that don’t have general practice coverage and setting up these clinics to bolster bulk-billed care in the community,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘There’s no intention at all, and this was on the record from the Shadow Health Minister down here, to compete with existing general practices or to create a price war.’
 
At present, no clinic in Tasmania provides a 100% bulk-billed service or offers bulk-billed standard consultations for new adult patients without a concession card.
 
‘Under Labor’s model, you’re essentially having the State Government cover some of the administrative costs of running a business and supplying the buildings, which allows the GPs to take home 100% of their Medicare billings, which means that you’re essentially making it a GP’s choice,’ Dr Jones said.
 
‘They can work under this model or work under a private billing model, and their take-home pay will be about the same, so that they can choose how they want to work.’
 
Dr Jones said he believes the extended operating hours offered under Labor’s model will offer flexibility not just to patients, but to GPs.
 
‘They see that we as a workforce want flexibility, and they see this model as a way of offering that while still maximising value to the community,’ he said.
 
The State Labor promise comes as the Federal Government’s controversial Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program is set to begin in November, with the Prime Minister vowing to make ‘nine out of 10 visits to the GP to be free’.
 
In response, the RACGP has maintained that GPs’ billing choices are their own.
 
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