"Crunch time” for GPs

AMA President Professor Steve Robson says general practice needs an immediate rescue plan.

The future of bulk billing and the bulk-billing model has been a constant in the media cycle this week and the AMA has used the opportunity to advocate for its vision of a modern Medicare and to defend struggling GPs who have had little choice to move to mixed or private billing.

AMA President Professor Steve Robson did not hold back when talking to The Australian’s health reporter Natasha Robinson. He said the federal government needed to produce an immediate rescue plan for primary care, with GP clinics “running for the defibrillator.”

“I think at the end of the day we’ve really hit crunch-time. There’s no Plan B, we need a plan now. The time has come for a proposal, not being commitment phobic,” Professor Robson said and called for the health minister to put his cards on the table at the next Medicare Taskforce meeting, likely to be held later this month.

On ABC RN Breakfast on Tuesday morning Professor Robson said the rebate freeze had been a “catastrophe” for bulk billing, telling host Patricia Karvelas it was just impossible for practices to maintain any sort of viability with the costs they were facing.”