GP advocacy push takes over Parliament

GPs in the Northern Territory are ramping up their advocacy efforts – taking their concerns straight to Parliament.
 
The Territory’s inaugural GPs@Parliament last week proved popular among GPs and MPs alike, with all but one politician attending the event.
 
The advocacy initiative saw GPs offering health checks to the MPs while they chatted one-on-one about general practice, their clinics, and what needs to be done.
 
RACGP NT Chair Dr Sam Heard described the event as ‘amazing’, saying all but one MP attended.
 
‘Some of them spent up to an hour with us, and maybe six or seven sat down with a GP and had a chat, some sent some of their advisers down afterwards too,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘Mostly, it was talking about general practice and what’s going on – the Health Minister talked about how important general practice was.
 
‘It was a really positive thing for everyone, for the GPs, for the college, for the MPs, everybody was quite clear about it being a very good idea.’
 
Dr Heard added that it was an invaluable opportunity to educate the MPs face to face about some of the ‘misunderstandings’ of general practice.
 
‘One is that GPs are a different thing than other doctors, and that idea of being specialists is quite foreign to some of them,’ he said.
 
‘And very little understanding of how Medicare works and what the issues are for remote GPs in terms of the bulk-billing incentive.’
 
NT Health Minister Steve Edgington welcomed the event, saying it offers politicians the opportunity for a one-on-one conversation with a GP.
 
‘This event provides all [Members of the Legislative Assembly] an introduction to the RACGP to discuss the key challenges and opportunities facing primary healthcare here in the Northern Territory,’ he said.
 
‘GPs are vital across the entire healthcare system from local clinics and primary healthcare services to hospitals and aeromedical retrievals.
 
‘They provide frontline care, early diagnosis and ongoing management of illness, helping reduce pressure on hospitals while ensuring patients receive timely treatment and coordinated care, particularly in remote and regional communities.’
 
The NT event follows similar events right across Australia, alongside the RACGP’s federal GPs@Parliament campaign, which took place earlier this month.
 
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GPs@Parliament Northern Territory