Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President and Dr Bronwyn Gould, General Practitioner, with Peta Donald, ABC 'AM'

But as Peta Donald reports, the Australian Medical Association is accusing the Government of wasting money.

DONALD: Dr Bronwyn Gould has been a GP in inner Sydney for more than 20 years. When it comes to popping pills she's come across a range of differing views.

GOULD: The world seems to fall into almost two camps - people who think there's a miracle tablet to fix everything in spite of living too hard, working too hard, not sleeping, eating the wrong food and not exercising, and they think a pill will fix it - and then there are other people who actually can't find the $19 or $20 dollars it needs for antibiotics for their child's ear.

DONALD: It's the first group that Health Minister Kay Patterson has firmly in her sights. In a bid to rein in the escalating cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, she's planning to spend an unprecedented amount of money on a public awareness campaign.

Senator Patterson on PM last night:

"Eight out of 10 visits to a doctor end in a script being written. Enormous pressure is put on doctors by the public, to have a pill rather than doing something like exercise, or changing our diets, or in fact, making sure we just go to bed and take plenty of fluids if we've got a cold, rather than having antibiotics which will do nothing for a cold."

PHELPS: To accuse doctors of over-prescribing is making doctors the scapegoats for a blow out in the PBS.

DONALD: Dr Kerryn Phelps, President of the Australian Medical Association. She'd prefer to see the money spent on public hospitals, or addressing the shortage of doctors and nurses.

PHELPS: To spend $50 million dollars on an advertising campaign about the PBS, I certainly would like to see some evidence that this is going to have the effect that will benefit the community. At the moment, all we can see is the Government wanting to save $280 million dollars through this education campaign, but most experts would say that that forecast is very ambitious.

DONALD: Sydney GP, Bronwyn Gould thinks a campaign to educate patients about the appropriate use of drugs could be useful - but only if it doesn't frighten people away from using medication when they should.

GOULD: People don't always clearly hear the subtle messages and we'll get people, I often get people coming in, and if a child actually does need medication for an infection - for a bacterial infection - the parent will be saying, 'But doesn't this mean that the antibiotics won't work next time?' And some parents, who have a little bit of education, develop a really deep-seated fear of all medication.

COMPERE: Dr Bronwyn Gould ending Peta Donald's report.

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