POLL: Most GPs will snub diabetes scheme

reject it like we did vocational registration, PIP, bulk billing. GP's have made a habit of rolling over and this will be no different.

Am I hallucinating, or did this AMA fellow really express (qualified) support for this diabetes scheme, which is but the thin end of a very big wedge, designed by Left-leaning health bureaucrats and trade union health activists, designed to totally destroy private general practice in this country!!?? If you want to work in a Government-controlled clinic, join a Community Health Centre. To preserve private practice and clinical independence (like specialists do), keep this socialist Gov't out of your office. Gov't-controlled clinics in the UK, Canada and New Zealand are a recipe for GP demoralization and burn-out, long patient queues, and increasing surgery violence, and all with no evidence to show better patient outcomes. Stick with what you already do well, and pay no attention to Left-wing Gov't stirrers and wimpish Division upstarts, who will improve you AT YOUR PERIL.

that there has been a lot of talk recently amongst General Practice regarding the proposed changes to billing for Diabetes Care and management. I it was quickly thrown into the suspicious nonsense basket. The Government (Prime Minister Rudd) felt strongly that the 280,000 diabetic admissions to hospital last year were completely avoidable if GPs were to improve their game and shoulder their responsibility of whipping patients into shape. And this end could be achieved if government took the reins and whipped General practice into submission. There is only one cause and one solution to this massive problem. Fix the failure of General Practice. In Canberra it is believed and understood that piles of moldy statistics sees and hears more truth than the eyes and ears of a treating Doctor. The Government is entreating us to sign up to a "one size fits all" one off payment to cover the annual cost of each diabetic patient with a bonus if we reach a target. For this we must sacrifice the payment we receive for each individual consultation. Some patients do very well with four consultations in a year. Others do very poorly with over 30. Some GP practices have more of one type of patient that the other. So some of us will be working harder for less and others will be working less for more. There are several problems with this thinking that statistics cannot see. Firstly Diabetics do not embrace the Diabetic lifestyle in the way that someone may embrace a lifestyle choice such as Kung Fu or gambling. Many loose interest in and forget what what have been advised by the time they get back to their cars. The motivated Diabetics are already "on target ". Giving a GP a "fist full of dollars" will not help more Diabetics get reach. We do not have the staff to follow them around in the supermarket and read the labels on their food purchases for them . Also I have met several people with Diabetes who candidly express the view "Doctor I do not like exercise. There must be something Else." At a larger perspective there something else. This situation has not reached the magnitude that it has because GPs have failed. We do not solicit patients to become ill. We cannot follow them home. this is Stalking and is illegal. The Government has had the means available to double the cost of cigarettes but has not taken the measure...for it's own murky reasons. The government has had the means available to limit timing and duration advertising of fast foods to minors and has not done the work. The government could have instigated smarter food labeling to assist diabetics in their choices in the supermarket but they haven't. What has the Government Done? Blamed General Practice. Who in their right mind would consider becoming a GP in Australia when the Government is scapegoating us and trying to drum up a crisis so they can boldly justify stepping in to take control and clean things up. The truth is out there , trust no one Dr Thomas Lyons MBBS DCh