General practice – Australian Medicine special feature

General practice holds a very special place in Australian society. There is a long tradition of the local family doctor being an important member of local communities – city and country.

In recent times, that key role and the ability to sustain a general practice have become strained and pressured. We have seen communities, especially rural communities, lose their family doctors. We have seen family doctors burdened with administrative red tape. There have been changes and reforms – not all of them good.

Now, amid a significant period of health reform, general practice once again faces new challenges.

GP Super Clinics, diabetes care plans, practice nurse incentives, after hours funding, Medicare audits, collaborative care arrangements, GP workforce shortages, new training places, infrastructure funding, Medicare Locals, and the ever-present red tape. There are winners and losers in any reform process. Individual general practices and family doctors are being affected in different ways by the changes.

The current issue of Australian Medicine, the national news publication of the AMA, has a special feature on the future of general practice. In this special feature, we have sought a range of views, including from the health minister and the shadow health minister.

The views expressed in the special feature are the views of the authors and their organisations, and not AMA policy, except for AMA contributions. You can read the special feature and other GP-related articles from this edition here:

·    General practice special report (PDF)
·    President's message (PDF)
·    General practice column (PDF)

The AMA also wants to hear your thoughts on this important subject. Members can join in the conversation online via the members forum or please send us an email to generalpractice@ama.com.au

AMA puts the case to Productivity Commission for better access to medical services in aged care

Last week, an AMA delegation of geriatricians, psychiatrists, general practitioners, and rehabilitation and palliative care specialists made a presentation to the Productivity Commission inquiry into caring for older Australians.

Medical care for older Australians was not included in the original terms of reference for the inquiry, but the Commission agreed to the AMA’s request to discuss this important aspect of aged care.

AMA Vice President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said that the medical care of the aged in our community and in residential aged care represents a continuing and growing challenge – the demand for healthcare services for older Australians is rising and future generations of older people are likely to have more complex health problems and demand a higher level of service.  [Read more]

Practice nurse time counts for health assessments

On 1 May 2010, health assessment items in the MBS were changed from seven specific health assessment items to four time-based items. The new items cover brief, standard, long and prolonged consultations. Following these changes, a number of members have queried whether the time their practice nurse spends assisting them counts towards the total time taken to conduct the health assessment.

The AMA can confirm that the time spent by a practice nurse or registered Aboriginal health worker undertaking information collection and providing information to patients about recommended interventions, as directed by the GP, may be added to the time taken by the GP to complete the assessment. Further information is available in a Department of Health and Ageing fact sheet.

To help GPs comply with any Medicare Australia audit of these items, the AMA advises GPs to keep a record of the time the practice nurse spends assisting them on each health assessment.