Primary Health Care Organisations will need close monitoring and leadership - AMA
AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said that the Primary Health Care Organisations (PHCOs) announced today by the Government will need to be closely monitored and will require GP leadership if they are to deliver better health outcomes for communities.
Dr Pesce said the AMA is on the record as being opposed to the PHCO concept but, recognising that the Government was pursuing a PHCO policy, the AMA sought input to help determine their arrangements and ensure the key primary care role of GPs was preserved and supported.
“The AMA has consistently opposed any arrangement that would involve managed care of patients outside of the care provided by their normal doctor, and we have always opposed any interference in the doctor-patient relationship,” Dr Pesce said.
“Following representations from the AMA, the Government has made it clear that this is not how PHCOs would operate.
“Further, the Prime Minister has agreed with the AMA that PHCOs must complement the work of a patient's general practitioner.
“The principle that the GP will remain responsible for the planning and management of their patients’ care underpins the development of PHCOs.
“The bottom line is that PHCOs must support general practitioners and not compromise their work.
“Above all, it would be counterproductive to allow the PHCOs to evolve into a deadweight bureaucracy over general practice just at the time when the Prime Minister is trying to remove the bureaucracy that bedevils our public hospitals system.
“The AMA notes that the Government wants PHCOs to focus on areas of unmet need by providing additional services such as allied health in areas where it is not currently available.
“We recognise the Government’s desire to have PHCOs coordinate hospital and general practice arrangements to make them work better for patients who move in and out of both systems.
“The establishment of PHCOs will involve an evolution of the role of the Divisions of General Practice, not a revolution, because the Divisions were originally created to perform many of the functions now assigned to PHCOs.”
Dr Pesce said that PHCOs would need to be closely monitored and evaluated to ensure quality of accessible care across the country and to guard against fragmentation of patient care.
“The doctor-patient relationship must be protected, and the Prime Minister has recognised this in today’s announcement,” Dr Pesce said.
“For the Prime Minister’s pledge that GPs will have responsibility for planning and managing their patients’ care to have meaning, there must be no restrictions on patients’ access to a GP or their choice of a GP or other medical practitioner, and there must be no restriction or change in patients' access to their Medicare rebate entitlement to see their GP.
“There must be no increased bureaucracy or red tape for GPs, and all decisions on patient care must remain with the GP.
“For PHCOs to work properly in the best interests of patients and communities, they must be led by GPs.
“GP leadership will provide certainty that patient care is not fragmented and that patients will have better access to, and opportunities for, allied health services."
12 April 2010
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