Significant number of emergency department patients better served by a GP
The AMA President, Dr Michael Gannon, has appeared in the media this week reiterating the importance of patients seeing their GP rather than turning to the emergency department in non-emergency circumstances. The President’s comments come after the Productivity Commission 2018 report found there were 3000 patients arriving in emergency departments who did not need to be there.
Speaking on 2GB radio in Sydney, Dr Gannon reiterated the importance of the GP in the healthcare system.
“The [Productivity Commission] report refers to the significant number of people that would be better served by going to GPs. It's not a particularly efficient use of the health system. It doesn't recognise that GPs and emergency physicians have different skillsets. In an ideal world, the right patient would go to the right place.”
“There's a lot of people who could be much better served by not only the expertise of a general practitioner who's trained to look after some of these lower acuity presentations than my emergency physician colleagues,” Dr Gannon said.
