Pillar 1: General Practice

• Continued support from the federal government to embed MyMedicare, particularly focused on seamless integration with practice systems and targeted programs linked to MyMedicare enhance levels of support available to patients.

• Increase in patient cohorts, services and programs that are eligible to participate in MyMedicare. 

• Funding for general practice data collection and analysis to support research to demonstrate the value proposition of MyMedicare for the patient, GP and broader care team allowing for more services for patients.

• Implementation of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
• Ongoing research and analysis on the value proposition of MyMedicare.

• Issues that threaten the viability of general practice, for example payroll tax, are addressed.

• State and federal governments working together to improve the viability of general practice.
  • Policy changes, exemptions, or compensation to address the issue of payroll tax.
  • Increase in the implementation of initiatives to improve the viability of general practice.

• Adoption of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, to enhance patient access and care and support general practices, with funding to support this adoption and funding for future-proofing (e.g. power outages). 

• Increase in uptake of new technologies in general practice.
• Implementation of change management, education, and training, to support adoption of new technologies. 

• Funding to support innovative models of care in general practice to improve patient access and the patient experience.

• Implementation of innovative models of care in general practice.

• Improve funding associated with after-hours services for patients to improve access to general practice after-hours, including reform of the definition of after-hours for in-clinic GP services. 

• Increase in general practices offering after-hours services.

• Restructure GP MBS consultation items to recognise the increasing complexity of patient consultations, including patients with complex and chronic disease.

• MBS consultation items that value longer consultations.

• Expand the wound consumables scheme to all patients with chronic wounds.

• Reduction in wound-related complications and hospital admissions.

• Funding models that support the delivery of team-based care, led by the GP.

• Increase in utilisation of other healthcare professionals in the delivery of multidisciplinary care. 

• Explore ways to improve access to medicines in general practice, for example the introduction of dispensing pharmacists in general practices. 

• Improved access to medicines through general practice. 

• General practitioners are supported as clinical leaders, while also enabling the general practice team to work to their full scope of practice within strong clinical governance frameworks. 

• Expansion of GP-led multidisciplinary models of care.

1.5: Enhanced access to primary healthcare services for patients in residential aged-care facilities

• Introduction of telehealth items that enable GPs to consult with residential aged-care facility staff and families, on behalf of the patient.

• Introduction and utilisation of new telehealth items. 

• Improved incentives to encourage general practices to deliver healthcare in residential aged-care facilities, as outlined in the AMA research report Putting health care back into aged care. 

• Increase in general practice services in residential aged-care facilities. 

• Reform employment conditions for GP trainees to ensure pay and entitlements for GP trainees match their hospital-based counterparts as well as support and funding for GP training supervisors and practices.

• Equitable pay and entitlements between GP and non-GP trainees.
• All Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Program training places are filled.

• Increase high-quality exposure to general practice in medical school and prevocational training, with funding to support general practices to provide this exposure.

• Embed high-quality exposure to general practice during medical school and prevocational training in medical education and training accreditation standards.
• Increase in number of general practices providing high-quality general practice exposure to trainees.
• All Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Program training places are filled.

• Increase mental health MBS patient rebates (for GPs and psychiatrists) so they have parity with rebates for other chronic illness consultations.

• Increase in patient access to mental healthcare. 

• Funding to embed mental health practitioners in general practice as part of a multidisciplinary care model.

• Increase in utilisation of other healthcare professionals in the delivery of team-based mental healthcare.

• Remove barriers for high-risk, acute, and complex patients to improve access to psychological therapy, psychiatric care, and other allied healthcare.
• Develop initiatives specifically tailored for patients in regional, rural, and remote areas to remove these barriers.

• Increase in patient access to mental healthcare.

• Reduce the number of practitioners required for a multidisciplinary case conference for patients with a mental health plan from three to two.

• Reduction in complexity associated with mental health plans. 

• Additional funding and financial incentives to support general practices and GP training supervisors to develop and maintain structured teaching programs, including dedicated teaching time and resources.  

• Development and maintenance of teaching programs.

• Funding to support the development and implementation of e-learning platforms, simulation tools, and other infrastructure in general practice.

• Increase in adoption of e-learning platforms, simulation tools, and infrastructure to support education.

• Funding to evaluate the effectiveness of general practice teaching programs to support continuous improvement.

• Ongoing evaluations of teaching programs.