All Queenslanders need access to after-hours GP care

Transcript: AMA Queensland President, Dr Maria Boulton, ABC Brisbane, Breakfast with Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan, Thursday 5 October 2023

Subjects:   Urgent Care Clinics

CRAIG ZONCA:   Looks like the Prime Minister is set to be in Brisbane today. One of the announcements will be that the Cornwall Street Medical Centre at Woolloongabba, will become an Urgent Care Clinic.

LORETTA RYAN:   Yeah, it'll provide fully bulk billed walk-in care seven days a week over extended hours from later this month. And it's the third of 11 these so-called Urgent Care Clinics promised for Queensland.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Dr Maria Boulton is the President of the Australian Medical Association here in Queensland, a GP herself. Maria Boulton, hello.

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Good morning, Craig and Loretta. And Loretta, sorry about your toe.

LORETTA RYAN:   You've done it. I'm sure we've all done it, haven't we? Kicked the little toe?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yes. And it's so painful. Toes really hurt.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Why? Why is that? Why do they hurt more than most other things, Maria?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   It's because you have a lot of sensory receptors in your toes similar to your fingers, and also because you walk on them. So by the end of the day, they get really swollen and they hurt more than in the morning. And just a word of advice for Loretta - keep that toe up and make sure that you put some ice on it.

LORETTA RYAN:   See, Craig was telling me that from day one, get your foot up. Get your foot up, Loretta. And of course I was oh, no, I'll be right. And he's got us sitting down. We normally stand up in the studio. I didn't put ice on it because it was 11 o’clock at night and I wanted to sleep. So you just leave it though, don't you, Maria? It’ll fix up itself.

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah, depending on what the x-ray shows. But if it's not a bad fracture, it heals itself. You just buddy-strap it to the other toe. But it’ll take a few weeks -

LORETTA RYAN:   To stop it poking out the side of my sandals.

CRAIG ZONCA:    And what about suffering for the sake of fashion, Maria Boulton?

LORETTA RYAN:   Oh, yeah, what do you see?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Oh, look, I've got friends that suffer for the sake of fashion. I don't. I gave up high heels a long time ago, but I have friends that still, you know, they love their high heels, so each to their own.

LORETTA RYAN:   I'm sure doctors have seen ankle sprains, because I've nearly fallen off high heels. You know, you go over on your ankle. But let's get back to serious stuff, even though my toe is serious, I suppose. But these Urgent Care Clinics. Now, what are you thinking about this latest one, the Cornwall Street Medical Centre? Money well spent?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   We do appreciate any investment into primary care, but at the end of the day, that money needs to be spent in all general practices and it needs to be spent for all Queenslanders to have access after-hours to their GP. Queensland is going to get about 11 Urgent Care Clinics. When you look at our state we're very decentralised. So an Urgent Care Clinic in Browns Plains or Ipswich, I'm not sure how that's going to benefit someone in Chillagoe for example.

It's also recognition that Medicare rebates are not enough to run services such as this one because we know that they're getting extra funding and it's called for, we need to do more. We know that Urgent Care Clinics won't reduce ambulance ramping and bed block in hospitals. The only thing that will do that is for your rebates to see your GP to increase and for funding and resourcing to go into general practice. And that's every general practice so that every Queenslander has access to those services when they need them.

CRAIG ZONCA:   And this process for the Urgent Care Clinics. Was there an EOI where doctors were asked to put up their hand and say, yep, we want to get some of this funding, we want to turn our medical centre or practice into one of these clinics?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah. So it is an EOI process and they do have certain requirements, like proximity to hospital, proximity to x-ray services and hours of opening. Most of these clinics are open till, you know, some open till 8pm, some open till 10pm, and access for ambulance, you know stretchers and things. It was quite a process to go through and I think it's managed via the Primary Health Networks.

CRAIG ZONCA:   And is the idea that - and this one on Brisbane's southside, like you said, this is the third of 11 for Queensland. The other two are Browns Plains and Ipswich. Is the whole idea that people go to one of these clinics with extended hours rather than to an ED?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   That's the idea. But the trouble with that is that it relies on people knowing where to go, to understand what your condition is and whether you need emergency care or whether you can go and see your GP or your Urgent Care Clinic.

The other thing is that there are other GP clinics that are open extended hours and seven days, however, they don't have the funding that these Urgent Care Clinics have. For us it would have made much more sense to ensure that all those clinics that are already open, that already have patients and where patients are already going to, their records are already there, the patients are known to the clinic, for those clinics to have had that funding.

LORETTA RYAN:   These Urgent Care Clinics, do we have enough staff for them?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   That's the million dollar question. We know from the experience in the southern states that the health workforce is quite stretched and they do find it difficult to staff the clinics. But that goes for everything. Hospitals, private hospitals, everywhere is short-staffed at the moment. And that's why we're calling on the state government to ensure that they develop a comprehensive workforce plan to ensure that we have enough workforce now, but also that we're training enough for the future.

CRAIG ZONCA:   And Dr Maria Boulton, you spoke about wanting to have the Medicare rebate increased across the board. Isn't that set to happen? Is it next month from the start of November?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah, it's very little though. It's still not enough to make up for the years where it was frozen and it's still not enough to make up for the out-of-pocket gap that patients are paying.

CRAIG ZONCA:   So what's it increasing to, just off the top of your head?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   It's about 3 per cent just off the top of my head. But it's not enough when you look at the cost of inflation and the cost of living pressures and the fact that it's so far behind. When we look at where the Medicare rebates should be, they should be at least double where they are now.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Wow. Interesting. Maria Boulton, always good to catch up. Dr Maria Boulton, the President of the Australian Medical Association here in Queensland.