Primary gets cosy with GP registrars

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KnowCents

By

Julie Lambert

Primary Health Care is extending its reinvention as a more doctor-friendly employer by joining hands with the GP registrars’ association

Primary Health Care is extending its reinvention as a more doctor-friendly employer by joining hands with the GP registrars’ association.

In partnership with General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA), Primary will run events over the next year to help registrars develop their clinical and leadership skills, the group said in a statement.

The events will be open to all registrars, not just those working with the major operator of bulk-billing medical centres.

“We have a highly passionate group of experienced GPs who are keen to share their skills, expertise and experiences,” Mark Priddle, head of the Primary Health Care Institute, said.

The partnership with GPRA would allow the group to learn more about how it could support the next generation of doctors, he said.

Primary’s network currently has 90 GP registrars, an increase from 50 a year ago.

Primary is in the midst of a major recruitment drive for doctors under its newly installed managing director, Dr Malcolm Parmenter, to repair its faltering business performance.

The group poached Dr Parmenter from its major rival, Sonic-owned IPN, to replace Peter Gregg, who began the process of transforming Primary with more flexible contracts and conditions for clinicians.

Dr Andrew Gosbell, CEO of the GPRA, said there had been “some initial caution” to the idea of partnering with a large corporate like Primary.

“But when we gained an understanding of the support and commitment Primary is making to GP training and registrar education, we saw the value this partnership could offer our members right across the country.

“This partnership will also enable us to more effectively interact with Primary and support those GP registrars who are training with this corporate organisation.”

The event topics would range from clinical skills and exam support to running a small business and would help doctors develop their understanding of business and leadership, the statement said.

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Red Riding Hood
Red Riding Hood
6 years ago

But Grandma what big teeth you have?

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Glenn Rosendahl
Glenn Rosendahl
6 years ago

I worked with PHC for almost 5 years, and in the time they moved me to a smaller clinic closer to my home. I had no real problem until a local GP was retained who had a reputation for supplying the local addict community with their desired drugs of addiction. Abruptly the waiting room had a different ambience, and the practice manager, who had been with the practice for more than a decade, moved out. She told me she was not prepared to support this practitioner. Then I was confronted with one of his patients, who – in his absence – expected me to prescribe his usual narcotics. That entitled me to view that file (and the documentation from Melbourne) in its entirety. The patient had recently moved from Melbourne, was Hep C positive (not recorded in our file). Since the patient was about to visit Melbourne again, I told him he could get his medication from his previous GP. He informed me that GP was no longer practicing.
I declined to provide the script, and – since we had just been instructed, in no uncertain terms – in our obligation to make relevant ‘mandatory complaints’, I did just that. (The matter was heard 3 years later.) I had made the complaint from the relative safety of Norfolk Island. Two months later, it became obvious to me that the local chapter of ‘underbelly’ might not be pleased with the abrupt reduction in their supply of narcotic, and within a week I was in practice in an Immigration Detention Centre 95 Km inland from Perth. Two stints there, one stint in a similar IGD Centre inland from Weipa, then stints in Aboriginal Health at Alice Springs, Mosman Gorge, Capalaba, and Mareeba, I finally I considered it safe to return to the locale where I lived.
The problem with PHC – at that time and location – was that the local doctors at the clinic did not have any say in what practitioners might be ‘added in’. At the point where I begin to prescribe narcotics, the patient can reasonably assume I can be requested to continue those prescriptions. I was not prepared to provide that precedent.
There is a further problem, that does not involve clinical ethics at all. A large waiting room is needed to seat the patients (and family members) for the numbers of doctors in practice, commonly 20 or more. If consultation time is of the essence – and with bulk-billing it certainly is – one probably needs seating for at least 50 people. Then there is significant time required to call the next patient, for him, her – or them – to walk from the waiting room, down the corridor to the doctor’s room. More time if elderly or disabled. There is also the number of parking spaces required to enable those ?50 patients to drive in, and park, so they can attend the practice. Those parking spaces cost money. I expect the new clinics are laid out differently from the established ones.
Whether the government’s initiative to move to ‘capitation’ will solve these problems remains to be seen. It depends on how much money is on offer. I do not see any formal accounting presented as a practical and workable estimate. What PHC is accepting is a ‘pig in a poke’. But they may have been able privately to negotiate a higher quantum. I think the government is desperate to see ‘capitation’ begin. And registrars will accept a lower pay scale than is currently on offer.

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