The health minister says states have been doing the ‘heavy lifting’ for too long when it comes to general practice access.
Speaking at the launch of another Medicare urgent care clinic this morning, federal health minister Mark Butler said he was beginning to see “green shoots” of recovery for general practice.
Morayfield Minor Accident and Illness Centre in Brisbane’s north has been operating 8am-8pm, seven days a week since 2019, but will now receive federal funding and be rebadged as a Medicare UCC.
Mr Butler was quizzed about the MUCCs and bulk-billing incentives on ABC Brisbane this morning. He was asked why Queensland had been forced to “do the heavy lifting” by opening satellite hospitals to support patients who couldn’t get access to GPs, a federal responsibility.
“Because nothing was being done before we came to government,” said Mr Butler.
“I promised at the last election that we’d start to put in place these sorts of arrangements, the urgent care clinics. They weren’t supported by the now opposition, the Liberal National Party.
“They didn’t have anything like this when they were in government.
“A years-long freeze in the Medicare rebate really did put a lot of pressure on bulk billing for GPs, which is why, again, we tripled the bulk-billing incentive that has seen bulk-billing rates start to climb again for the first time in a long period.
“We are dealing with 10 years of cuts and neglect, particularly to general practice and the health ministers and doctors will tell you if general practice is under pressure most of those pressures end up reverberating into your local emergency department.
“We’re working really closely together, not just here in Queensland, but with states and territories around the country, to assume the responsibilities that Shannon Fentiman rightly says are the Commonwealth’s, to build clinics like this, to take pressure off local hospital emergency departments,” said Mr Butler.
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Despite two increases in the Medicare rebate since he came into government, Mr Butler acknowledged that GPs wanted more.
“It’s not too long ago, maybe a few decades, that one out of every two medical graduates would choose general practice as their career,” said Mr Butler.
“That rate has plummeted to about one in seven. That’s a pretty terrifying figure if you cast forward five or 10 years, given how absolutely critical general practice is to the operation of a good healthcare system.
“That bulk-billing incentive has meant that bulk billing is turning around.”
“We’re not going to change this overnight, but we are starting to see the green shoots of recovery.
“The number of junior doctors who have just graduated who are choosing general practice as their preferred career, is up 20% this year compared to last year.
“We’re seeing more bulk billing. We’re seeing a lot more additional free visits to the doctor, 900,000 additional bulk billed or free visits to the doctor just last month because of our changes.”
