GP Super Clinics 'not so super' - AMA
The AMA welcomes today’s reports that the Government is taking action to discontinue any further expansion of the previous Government’s failed GP Super Clinics program.
AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said the AMA has been a vocal critic of the Super Clinics since they were first proposed.
“The GP Super Clinics have proved to be anything but super,” Dr Hambleton said.
“They have absorbed huge amounts of valuable health funding that would have been better spent in other ways in the health system.
“Super Clinics were supposed to provide primary care services in areas where patients had poor access to GPs, but some have been built in places where they compete with successful long-established general practices.
“They were supposed to fill health gaps, but the record on that has been very mixed.
“The AMA recommends that any unspent or recovered GP Super Clinic funding should be directed to help upgrade existing general practices in the form of Primary Care Infrastructure Grants.
“The Auditor-General last year found the Infrastructure Grants to be delivering excellent results.
“Under the Primary Care Infrastructure Grants program, $117 million has been allocated over four years to upgrade 425 GP facilities.
“By contrast, the Auditor-General found that two GP Super Clinics alone had cost taxpayers $50 million, and several more had needed substantial top-up funding.
“The Auditor-General also found that there were inadequate processes in place to assess what effect Super Clinics would have on existing primary health services, whether they provided value for money, and whether they were achieving any meaningful improvements in access to health care.
“The Government is doing the right thing by bringing this bad experiment to an end,” Dr Hambleton said.
8 April 2014
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