GPs sick of medi freeze

EMERGENCY departments are overwhelmed, the cost of seeing a doctor has risen and GPs are refusing to deal with more than one medical problem per visit as a four-year freeze on Medicare rebates bites.

The freeze is due to end in July, when the Medicare rebate for a standard GP visit will rise by 55c to $37.60.

It is the first rise in four years, but general practitioners have branded it “paltry” and “insulting”.

If the rebate had risen in line with inflation, it would have been about $42 this year.

Prof Brad Frankum, who is vying to be the Australian Medical Association’s next federal president, said the Medicare freeze had cost bulkbilling doctors on average around $100,000 in income over the past four years. But the impact was also felt by patients as many GPs ceased bulk-billing, driving up out-ofpocket costs.

Doctors were also providing shorter consultations to try to fit more patients in to maintain their incomes.

And ED presentations were rising because patients who could not afford to see a doctor were going to hospital for GPtype care or delayed seeking medical help and got so sick they became an emergency, Prof Frankum said.

“I suspect a tactic is to refuse to deal with more than one problem at a sitting and get people to come back for a second visit,” he said.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners wants an 18.5 per cent increase in the Medicare rebate for GP visits to bring them into line with other specialists’ fees.