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Professional News

MBS stymies prevention

RECENT changes to MBS health assessment item numbers will not enable GPs to undertake ongoing preventive care for their patients, experts have argued. Under changes that came into effect on 1 May, 10 health assessment items, including Healthy Kids Checks, were consolidated into four time-based items. According to Professor Mark Harris, executive director of the University of NSW Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, said while the Federal Government’s decision to streamline the health assessments did reduce their complexity, it did not support preventive care throughout a patient’s life. In an editorial co-authored for the ...

Blogs

Abbott vs Gillard: battle for health is heating up

THE date is set and the federal election campaign has begun in earnest – but which of the two former health leaders and long time adversaries will win their latest showdown?Since their duels over the health portfolio during the Howard era, both former health minister Tony Abbott and former shadow health minister – now Prime Minister – Julia Gillard have risen to lead their respective parties, creating a rare opportunity for health. Or does it?Despite ousting Kevin Rudd from the Lodge, Ms Gillard is standing by the much-criticised GP Super Clinics initiative launched during ‘Kevin07’. Already promised is a new $7 ... see more

Read more from Andrew Bracey

It’s a crying shame that more tears aren’t shed

THIS week I made a patient cry. Maybe that’s not completely true. She was heading in that direction already and I just added a little push. I was in one of my Doc Martin moods.The patient had a rash. I had previously given her a prescription that had worked. When she stopped treatment, the rash recurred. She was desperate.“You need to re-start your medication.”“But it came back; I want a cure.”“There is no cure.”That’s when the tears began forming. Huge, Brontosaurus-size tears.“That’s what dermatology is all about; managing skin diseases that never go away.”Maybe those weren’t my best-chosen words. Now ... see more

Read more from Dr Pam Rachootin

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