I have recently taken over the Chair role at the AMA Council of General Practice (CGP). I follow on from well-known Queensland GP Dr Richard Kidd, who was dedicated to this role for over 6 years.
Richard was a very hard working, knowledgeable Chair who worked tirelessly to benefit GPs all over the country. Few outside our Council would know how much work gets done on behalf of Australian GPs, a great deal of it unseen. I often say it is not just the good things you see and judge us by, it is also a lot of really bad things and crazy ideas that we manage to stop and you will fortunately never see.
Time and circumstances move on however and there are some areas where I believe we need to refocus.
General Practice is facing some big challenges at present, but there are also some big opportunities opening up. Over the coming year I want to see your Council focus on the big issues, and the things that can really make a difference to the lives of GPs and our patients. There is always lots of other policy and advocacy work, but over the next year I would like us to see some big changes happening for GP.
The other main area I want to enhance is the way in which we work with other key organisations, especially our Colleges RACGP and ACRRM. We need to work productively together to achieve results for GP. We don't have to agree on every detail, but we need to present a united and coherent front to government on all the big issues. We need input from the Colleges, and they need our support if we are to succeed.
I have already had very productive conversations with incoming RACGP President Nicole Higgins and ACRRM President Dan Halliday. I also want to see us work with The Australian Digital Health Agency as IT will be vital to our future, and with organisations such as The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association that will be so important to enhancing the role of practice nurses and improving WIP funding. Both these organisations presented to our recent CGP meeting.
The real challenge, though, is translating all this into concrete action. We already have a $1b allocation from Labor as an election promise, the only specialty to get any additional funding at all. However, we all know, and the Minister recognises, that this is just a down payment on what is needed to revitalise General Practice and make our health system sustainable into the future.
The biggest issue that I want to see addressed over the coming year is the failings within the MBS. Not the crazy rorts saga that has been beaten up in the media recently (without a shred of real evidence) but the real failings: systemic underfunding and the extreme bias to short consults. The more complex care you deliver, the more time you spend keeping patients out of hospital, the more that you and your patients are penalised. This has to stop if we are to save our health system.
VPE is a great idea if done properly, as it will protect us and our patients and provide a basis on which to advocate for additional funding. The AMA will never support a capitation model of VPE. However, VPE itself is not a funding mechanism, and will not save GP alone. Rebalancing and refunding the MBS will. This will require substantial funding. However, adequately funding GP requires only a relatively modest expenditure in the overall health budget and research shows will save large amounts elsewhere in the healthcare system. Supporting GP is cost-effective!
Combine MBS reform with VPE, additional targeted payments, better funding for practice nurses, allied health and wound care, IT that makes life easier not harder, PHNs that work for us, after-hours payments and reformed Aged care, plus our other initiatives and Australia will once again be clear world leaders in health.
And you and I will have happy and productive working lives, our patients will have good health, hospitals will cope and young doctors will compete to be part of this.
That is my vision, and it is what your AMA is working towards. We won't get everything perfect, but your CGP is determined to get it as close as we can. Your support, your ideas and your membership fees all contribute to this. As an AMA member, you are making things better and helping shape the General Practice of the future.
Dr Simon Torvaldsen
Chair, AMA Council of General Practice
