Picture: TAHLIA FACER
By Tahlia Facer
Bundaberg GP and practice owner Dr Brad Murphy has welcomed the Federal Government’s tripling of the Medicare subsidy which is set to encourage better health outcomes for the region.
Bundaberg MP Tom Smith and Senator Anthony Chisholm met with Dr Murphy at Ashfield Country Practice to talk about on-the-ground benefits of the budget announcement.
“The thing that we need to focus on is that healthcare in Australia is a team-based approach,” Dr Murphy said.
“Our patients don’t differentiate between federal and state divides, and yet our system does.
“This budget has just been absolutely awesome in helping us with that.
“What’s happened within general practice has certainly been a great step forward in helping to save the bulk billing across Australia and make sure the access to healthcare is still here.
“Particularly here in Bundaberg and particularly here at Ashfield Country Practice we look after a lot of vulnerable people [in] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Healthcare card holders and our veterans, and this means that we can continue to look at ways that we can extend bulk billing services to those patients of ours.
“This is a great opportunity, it’s widespread, and it has an effect across the way that we deliver healthcare to our community both here in general practice, in primary care, in residential aged care and in the public hospital system.”
Dr Murphy said tripling the Medicare rebate for GPs would incentivise doctors to bulk bill more of their eligible patients.
“At the moment we’re looking at around 30 per cent… of bulk billing incentives [that] come back to the practice and that means that 60 per cent of that is to run the wages for staff and all the infrastructure,” he said.
“At the moment that’s somewhere in the order of about $3, so we’re talking about an increase to about $10 so that will certainly help, but that’s not going to necessarily work towards allowing us to keep the doors open and some practices have had to change [to a fee-for-service model only].
“This is a great start and a very welcome start which we absolutely applaud, but it’s probably not going to be where we need to stop.
“The minister has been amazing at engaging with our college president… and that’s been a refreshing change to the past.
“I think this is very promising moving forward and we’re very thankful for what we’ve done thus far.”
Senator Anthony Chisholm said the Federal Budget delivered a commitment to essential services.
“Our commitment to Medicare and bulk billing in particular were something I think that will resonate quite strongly in this community,” he said.
“The changes that we’ve made will mean that almost 100,000 people across the Hinkler electorate will benefit from the increase in bulk billing rates.
“What that means practically is that if you’re a parent with a child under 16, you don’t have to think about whether you can afford to go to the doctor or not.
“You can be confident that you can turn up and that child will be bulk billed [which is] really important to take that pressure off families.”
Bundaberg MP Tom Smith said it was great to see their pleas to incentivise bulk billing had been heard loud and clear.
“In the survey that we had here locally that was the number one priority for GPs was making sure that accessing bulk billing for their patients was an accessibility, and that is exactly what we will see here now,” Mr Smith said.
“I’ve spoken to GPs over the last couple of days who are very excited by the announcement… that they will now be able to access bulk billing for a greater range of their patients.
“We know that here in Bundaberg and across the Wide Bay that we have more people with long term health conditions than not.
“That means that prevention, early intervention, the treatment of acute conditions and also the ongoing management of long-term health conditions as we move forward.
“This will ease the pressure on our hospitals as the years go on.
“The more investment into primary healthcare, then the greater investment we can put into our local hospitals around ensuring that we are providing emergency department care, ICU care and surgical care as well.”
Dr Murphy said the tripling of the Medicare subsidy would also mean a positive change in not only retaining but attracting doctors to the GP space.
“One of the other things that is probably a little lost is that I have a role here in CQUni and UQ about how do we actually grow the next generation of healthcare providers, particularly doctors in this case, and general practice is not seen at the moment as being the greatest career choice to move forward,” he said.
“This is a great step towards that.
“We’re going to grow our healthcare providers here locally, we’re going to send them through UQ so they can study here locally, we’re going to give them opportunities for intern placements and specialist training here locally, here in Bundaberg, and in Rockhampton and soon in Toowoomba, and that means we’re going to grow our next generation from our children so that they can care for us.”
Dr Murphy said the budget initiatives were helpful but there were still opportunities to further assist general practitioners.
“”The cost of living includes the cost of providing healthcare and the cost of running a business, and the infrastructure of running general practice isn’t getting any simpler,” Dr Murphy said.
“Software, rent, all of those things go up.
“…we’re not going to be able to bulk bill all of our patients, but certainly our most vulnerable patients.
“Our small percentage in general practice to run the business is still compromised but we’ll certainly stretch that as far as we can to make sure we can provide healthcare to our communities.
“That’s why we do medicine, but any assistance will be greatly appreciated.”