GP clinic plan not the answer

Transcript: AMA Queensland President, Professor Chris Perry, ABC News Radio, Mornings with Glenn Bartholomew, Wednesday, 13 April 2022

Subjects: Queensland health system strain, federal election promises

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    Queensland Health says public hospitals are seeing more patients than ever before, with the current COVID-19 wave putting a significant strain on the system there. Yesterday the state health minister confirmed there's been a mammoth surge in 000 calls as Queensland deals with its second Omicron wave. The Australian Medical Association wants more resourcing for the health system heading into winter, and the AMA Queensland President Dr Chris Perry joins us. Now, doctor, thanks for your time. We'll get to what you're calling for in a moment. But first, what do you make of all of that? The federal opposition promising to set up 50 clinics to deal with minor emergencies to take pressure off hospitals. Would the AMA support that idea?

CHRIS PERRY:    Rarely do the AMA agree wholeheartedly with the federal health minister, but I agree completely with what Greg Hunt said. This is rehashed failed policy from the Rudd era. The Super Clinics - the building was handed out to some of the mates in the construction industry. Some of them were built, they were never opened, often. The whole problem - Medicare doesn’t cover your costs if you're seeing patients properly, if you're bulk-billing them. So I agree completely with Greg Hunt. This shows that unfortunately Mr Albanese is very poorly advised in health. The amount of money he’s putting out, $135 million, is a drop in the ocean that Australian health needs. And it's being shown by the fact that 28 years ago we had 30 hospital beds, public hospital beds, in Australia for every 1000 people over the age of 65. Now we've got 15, we've got half the beds. So you can't get patients out of ambulances because the accident and emergency are full of people who are really, really sick.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    Isn't that what he's trying to address?

CHRIS PERRY:    No, not at all. He's looking at treating scratches, and giving an Amoxil prescription.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    But he's trying to keep those people out of emergency wards, is he not?

CHRIS PERRY:    They're not there. And if they are, they're seen by a very, very junior doctor quickly, and pushed back to their GP as quickly as they can. The accident and emergency physicians, their college, have put out public statements a number of times that this is not the problem. This is just nonsense. This is for public consumption for people who want to believe that they've got the answer. They don't.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    Sounds like you have a firm position on that one. How many GPs are out of action at the moment in Queensland?

CHRIS PERRY:    I don't know. We don't collect that data. We know that close to 3,500 public hospital workers are out and 200 ambulance drivers. The GPs have the same sort of issues of being understaffed, and also public holidays at the moment, and school holidays. So it could be a bit lean on the ground in some of the general practices, yes.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    There were 3,800 calls to 000 on Monday, and many patients waited several hours to be seen. It doesn't sound like you're keeping up. Is that good enough?

CHRIS PERRY:    Well, it's not good enough. But that's not a general practice issue. These people have got serious abdominal sepsis, heart attacks, and broken hips. They don't go to a GP. They go into an ambulance, if you can get an ambulance. And you've got 200 people away from the ambulance sector. You've got no surge capacity with the ambulances.

It's the same in the public hospitals. We've got no surge capacity. Australia’s health economists have talked about efficiency dividends, cutting everything to the bone. Efficiency in a private company is we'll cut all the staff until our customers really complain. Well, they do that in health. We just don't have, after our efficiency experts have gone through, we've got no surge capacity in our ambulances. We've got none in our public hospitals.

In fact we've got half the size public hospitals that we should have. And they wonder why people are waiting, people are dying at home with chest pains because the ambulances aren't getting there. It's got nothing to do with a Band-aid and an Amoxil prescription that Mr Albanese is talking about. This is just a nonsense. It's a drop in the ocean. Queensland needs 1500 more beds. That's $1.5 billion recurrent funding per year. We're 20 per cent of Australia's population. We need $7.5 billion per year, recurrent funding. That's $30 billion over forward estimates. None of them are talking about that. None of them are really going to take it on.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    So you're disappointed also with the federal government declining that call for 50/50 funding between the states and federal governments?

CHRIS PERRY:    We supported what the Queensland government did in that. They suggested an extra 5 per cent. And that would actually be $1.5 billion. That would actually pay for the extra 1500 beds. We were very disappointed that was just pushed to one side.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:    You're the head of the Australian Medical Association in Queensland. What's the solution? What are you going to do?

CHRIS PERRY:    Well, we talk to you, we talk to local radio, we talk to national television, and we say, "Where is the debate?" People get the governments they deserve. We're leaving it open now. We've got the two major sides of politics. What Anthony Albanese put out yesterday would be risible, laughable if it wasn't so serious.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:     What health commitments do you want to see from all major parties as we edge towards May 21st?

CHRIS PERRY:    Well, I'd like to see a serious, serious conversation, possibly pushed along by the media, that we have only half the beds that we need. We don't have enough staff. GP rebates are a third of what they were 30 years ago, as are other specialist rebates. So when people complain of money out of pocket, they say it's the doctor’s fault - no. No, it's the federal government and what they allow the insurance companies to get away with.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:     You don't sound very optimistic that you're going to see any kind of solution anytime soon.

CHRIS PERRY:    We'll have this conversation three years time I think, Glen. I think they just haven't learned. And I hope the Australian population, through journalists like yourself, start rattling the cage. Because this will continue. We're a very wealthy country. We spend 9 per cent of GDP on health. We're down at the bottom with New Zealand and England. We aren't up there with Denmark, France, Germany. We don't want to be up where America is, with a lopsided health system. We want a properly-funded health system, which is equitable for everybody. And you can't do that on 9 per cent without smoke and mirrors and saying it's somebody else's fault.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:     Does the Medicare levy need to be raised?

CHRIS PERRY:    If it can raise something like $7.5 billion per year.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:     It's got to come from somewhere.

CHRIS PERRY:    It'll take about five or 10 years to build up those bed numbers and the staff numbers. So we're not saying next year you need that. But the debate needs to be around why are hospital bed numbers so low? We've got an aging population. We can do so much for them. People all live to their nineties.

GLENN BARTHOLOMEW:     Dr. Perry, thanks.

13 April 2022