Dear Colleague
On an average day 406,000 visits are made to a general practitioner (GP)
We are a person's first point of contact with the health system that involves the management of a person's illness or disease condition.
Every day we put the needs of our patients first, individualizing care for complex and difficult patients and strive for quality improvement.
We have the training, experience and resources to provide a range of primary healthcare services in the one care setting - health promotion, illness prevention, treatment and care of the sick, coordination and collaboration with other health professionals.
I think we can all agree that we expect to achieve an income commensurate with the rigors and expense of our training necessary to do what we do.
We are acknowledged by the COAG Health Council on 27 March 2018 as a specialty practice alongside all the other related specialist titles.
However since 2010 when the the National Primary Health Care Strategy was introduced, there has been a paradigm shift away from the traditional fee for service model and an undermining of the central role the general practitioner plays in providing primary healthcare.
Our message is simple.
As Specialists in providing primary care
We call on the Government to:
- Give General Practice the recognition it deserves by strengthening the Fee for Service by
Placing a loading of 18.5% to be applied to all GP consultations to bring them in line with other medical specialist consultation MBS items as per the RACGP submission.
- Keep Prescribing rights within the domain of Medical Practitioners,Dentists and Nurse Practitioners as per the RACGP submission.
- Bring afterhours Practice consultations in line with ACRF consultations to commence from 6pm weekdays and 12 noon Saturdays.
Please join fellow GPs in a collective work stoppage for a day of protest to get our message across.
The chosen date is the International Universal Health Coverage Day Thursday the 12 December 2019 for the workstoppage .
