Dr David Rivett, Chair of AMA Council of General Practice, with Linda Mottram, ABC Radio 'AM'
MOTTRAM: With an eye to the ballooning cost of subsidising drugs, the Federal Government is planning a pilot programme aimed at curbing their prescription, using financial incentives to the medical community if it scales back and focuses on cheaper drugs.
However the idea has quickly attracted criticism from the Australian Medical Association, which says that the plan could put patients at risk.
Michele Fonseca reports.
FONSECA: Each year the Federal Government pours about $3 billion dollars into the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. That allows patients to buy subsidised drugs for everything from arthritis to heart conditions but those costs are spiralling by almost twenty per cent a year.
Now the Government's launching a pilot programme which will reward doctors for filling out fewer scripts or opting for the cheaper classes of drugs. Under the plan, half the money GPs save the Government will be returned to the organisations known as GP Divisions, which represent them, but the idea of financial incentives hasn't gone down well in the medical community.
The AMA's Chairman of General Practice, David Rivett, describes the plan as perverse.
RIVETT: When I am a patient I want to know that the doctor is acting in my best interests, not acting in his own financial interests. I think with any profession, the hallmark of a profession is that one is acting on behalf of one's client or customer or patient, not acting on behalf of a third party and I think if this was to become established as a fact of life in Australia it will destroy the doctor/patient relationship.
FONSECA: The Health Minister Kay Patterson was unable to speak to AM but a spokeswoman has been quoted denying the trial is an attempt to slash costs. She says the data collected will be used to assess whether doctors are over prescribing drugs or prescribing the wrong type.
The AMA insists the practice of prescribing antibiotics too easily has been wiped out in Australia. David Rivett.
RIVETT: Antibiotic prescribing has been cut back drastically by GPs in the last few years and public expectations of receiving an antibiotic when they see the doctor has changed also.
So public education and GP awareness that we need to watch what we're doing with antibiotics has been very effective. I think if she is saying that, she is making a comment which is outdated by about five to ten years.
Ends