The RACGP baton has formally passed to Dr Nicole Higgins, but the outgoing president won't be riding into the sunset – here's a podcast we recorded in September.
The changes wreaked by covid on Adjunct Professor Karen Price’s watch as RACGP president have been complex.
“We encountered the effects of ideology and some pernicious politics in health, but we also found the heart of humanity,” she says. “We found it beautiful, we found it tragic, we found it flawed, fearsome and dangerous. How general practice changed probably reflects the whole world.”
But the crisis in general practice has been years in the making. And while Professor Price has called vehemently for GPs to ditch bulk billing, the business model that meets both Australian patients’ and practitioners’ needs remains elusive.
She’s clear on the ground rules though.
“The best model is the one that allows you to practise high-quality healthcare in a professional way to the most vulnerable people in your practice,” she says.
“We’ve got to remember that Medicare is the patient’s funding, and if the government is not funding the most vulnerable then that’s a government issue, it’s not a medical practice issue.”
In this episode of The Tea Room, Professor Price also sounds off on professional lobbying, social media, capitation and the PSR.
“If we think we can replace general practice, we’re on a fool’s errand because there is no other profession that does differential diagnosis and management and care coordination like general practice does,” she says. “It takes 12 years just to begin to understand what that means, and it probably takes another 20 years to master it.”
You can listen and subscribe to the show by searching for “The Tea Room Medical Republic” in your favourite podcast player.
