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The following articles have the tag primary care
THE Australian Medicare Local Alliance has asked for an almost doubling in Commonwealth funding for Medicare Locals, calling for an extra $610 million to fund two ambitious new programs — targeting chronic disease and early childhood.
AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton accused the federal government of “insulting” rather than “consulting” GPs and provided an eight-point plan to fix primary health care in a press club speech yesterday.
ELDERLY patients with low clinical urgency are turning to hospital emergency departments to bypass a perceived block to primary or specialist care, research highlights.
Every day those in medical centres across Australia experience the pressures associated with the rising levels of chronic disease, the greater complexity of patient presentations and the demands of an ageing population. With around 75% of the population reporting that they have one or more current long-term medical conditions, doctors are seeing patients walking into their GP clinics with increasing frequency. Our ageing population is compounding this situation, with nearly all people aged 65 years or older having at least one long-term condition and more than 80% of people in this age group having three or more ...
A SIGNIFICANT rise in overall medical practitioner workforce numbers has failed to translate into a win for general practice, with the bulk of the increase being reflected in higher numbers of specialists and specialists in training, according to a new report. The Medical Labour Force 2009 report, released last week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, revealed that despite an increase of almost 25% in overall primary-care practitioner numbers between 1999 and 2009, the rate of full-time equivalent (FTE) practitioners remained marginally lower than 1999 levels. According to the report, primary-care practitioner numbers had risen ...
ONE in five primary care physicians in the United States is now battling parental concern over vaccination, typically requests to have vaccines ‘spaced out’ rather than administered simultaneously. Vaccine safety concerns and the time constraints of visits were hampering the ability of US doctors to deliver immunisation, researchers say. In a survey, 90% of doctors reported at least one vaccine refusal per month, compared with a study five years earlier in which 60% reported at least one parental vaccine refusal in the previous year. The number of recommended childhood vaccines had risen from 13–16 separate administrations ...
THE Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has demanded both major political parties make a commitment to coordinated primary care for patients in the lead-up to the New South Wales state election next week. RACP president Professor John Kolbe urged the major parties not to lose sight of important primary care issues, citing a “disproportionate focus on hospital-related healthcare” in the election health debate. “State and federal governments need to focus on coordinated and integrated services involving GPs, specialists, allied health and nurses to ensure better patient outcomes,” Professor Kolbe said. “Specialist physicians provide healthcare that ...
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has vowed to push on with the Government’s health reform plans despite the probable election of a coalition government in Victoria following the weekend’s state election. All states except WA have previously agreed to hand over a third of their GST revenue in exchange for Canberra taking over the full responsibility of primary care services. But a Liberal-Nationals coalition, likely to win government from Labor, could jeopardise the plan. With a coalition also poised to steal power from Labor in NSW early next year, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey last week said it ...
EXPERIENCE in managing general practice or primary care services is set to become a prerequisite for board members of the proposed Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The final report of a Senate inquiry into one of the central bills of the Government's health reforms has called for an amendment forcing the change, after concerns were raised that the proposed body would be too hospital service-centric. The bill stipulates members of the commission's board must have skills and experience in general management of public and private hospitals. But according to the Senate inquiry report, ...
PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE schemes should not be viewed as a panacea for health system funding, experts warn, and health policy makers must give serious consideration to Australia’s health IT systems before starting on this path. Writing in this week’s MJA , researchers from the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne said Australia needed to take particular note of lessons learned from the failures of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) scheme used in the UK. Co-author Professor Anthony Scott, from Melbourne University’s Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, said the UK pay-for-performance system had largely ...
ONE in five deaths in China could be averted if a primary care-based healthcare model was embraced to address preventable risk factors, Australian researchers say. Associate Professor Lyndal Trevena, head of the Office for Global Health at the University of Sydney, called for China’s billion-dollar health reform package to adopt a primary care approach in which GPs acted as ‘gatekeepers’ for hospital care. Hypertension currently accounts for 11.7% of deaths in China, and smoking for another 7.9 per cent. “Primary care is better placed than large hospitals to monitor risk factors such as high blood pressure, ...
A LACK of investment in the primary care workforce has contributed to Australia’s poor standing in an international study, which ranked the country joint last for timely and affordable healthcare. The comparative study published by The Commonwealth Fund revealed that 62% of Australians surveyed found it difficult to access after-hours care. In addition, just 31% of practices reported their patients were able to secure same-day or next-day appointments. These figures saw Australia ranked joint-last with the US in a comparison of seven developed nations. The Netherlands was ranked first for patient access. But overall, when efficiency, ...
RACGP president Dr Chris Mitchell has thrown his weight behind Professor Claire Jackson, the first contender to officially announce her candidacy for the RACGP presidency. As nominations for the role officially opened last week, Dr Mitchell said it would be “hard to imagine anyone who would be better placed to be president of the college but at the end of the day that election is decided by the members”. While Dr Mitchell said he would fully support whoever took the role, he said many members of the college were very pleased Professor Jackson was standing “because she ...
THE Rudd Government’s health reform plans have come under renewed fire for failing to end health cost-shifting and the ‘blame game’ between the federal and state governments as experts continue to deconstruct them. Professor Jeff Richardson, foundation director of the Centre for Health Economics at Monash University, labelled the reform package a “poisoned chalice”, and said the funding arrangements would not stop public hospitals attempting to push their patients back on to GPs. Professor Richardson was one of several experts who criticised the reforms in the latest MJA. The proposals agreed at the recent Council of Australian ...
Establishing Local Hospital Networks and regional Primary Health Care Organisations (PHCOs) could create a new frontier for the ‘blame game’ within the health system. Addressing a forum hosted by the Australian National University, RDAA CEO Steve Sant warned the bodies might use each other as scapegoats if the system did not work. “Are we going to see another report in a few years titled Shifting the Blame Game about the networks blaming PHCOs and vice versa because they have not changed the health outcomes of [those] they serve?” he asked. Philip Davies, professor of health systems ...
A REALLOCATION of resources committed to reducing alcohol-related harm could lead to 10 times greater health gains for the same level of investment, experts say. They say new research aimed at “identifying an optimal package of interventions that provided the best value for money in reducing alcohol-related harm” shows that the current focus on random breath testing (RBT) may not provide the most cost-effective option. While RBT was a cost-effective intervention, it was less so than (in order of cost-effectiveness) volumetric taxation, advertising bans, an increase in the minimum legal drinking age to 21 years, brief intervention ...
THE Federal Government has announced plans to become the dominant funder of hospital services across the country, as the first step in its long-awaited health and hospitals reform plan. Under the new funding arrangements outlined today by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the Government plans to take over 60% of the funding for public hospitals with Local Hospital Networks, to be run by local clinical leaders, established to administer services. The Government will also assume responsibility for all GP and primary care services. “By taking full funding and policy responsibility for primary care we can also reduce ...
RISING emergency department presentations and potentially preventable hospitalisations are the clearest examples yet that general practice requires far greater government investment, experts argue. National figures released last week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed that since 2003-04, presentations to emergency departments increased by an average of 5% each year. In 2007-08, they stood at more than 7 million. During the same period, hospitalisations rose by 3.8% to 7.4 million. The AIHW determined 9.3% of these could have been avoidable through the provision of “timely and adequate non-hospital care”. Chronic illnesses such as ...
COMMUNITY-BASED models of chronic care can have a dramatic effect on reducing hospitalisation of COPD patients, an Adelaide study shows. Speaking at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians meeting this month, Professor Peter Frith, head of respiratory services at Adelaide’s Flinders Medical Centre, said the model reduced hospital admissions in COPD patients by 58 per cent. The Chronic Disease Community Program was developed in consultation with tertiary care physicians, community nurses and general practitioners in a socioeconomically deprived region of southern Adelaide. The model was based on coordinating and integrating a care team. “The care team ...
GENERAL practice has once again lost out in the federal Budget, with profession leaders criticising the Government for a failure to invest in vitally needed primary health care programs and infrastructure. While paring back MBS rebates for GP mental health care plans and denying them access to MRIs, the Government ignored the recent request from United General Practice Australia to invest up to $530 million in general practice infrastructure. RACGP president Dr Chris Mitchell was disappointed that the Government had raised expectations that impending reforms would lead to increased investment in primary care, but then failed to ...
PRACTICE nurses have already taken their place as key players in the delivery of quality care in general practice and they are ready to weather the changes ahead for primary care in 2009. For this reason, the arrival of a magazine specifically dedicated to issues affecting PNs could not come at a better time. At APNA we strive to represent the issues, needs and desires of PNs and to support them as part of the general practice team. The essence of nursing is to deliver the best clinical care within a framework of the patients’ experience ...
GP groups will need to build a stronger case to back up their latest calls for a $530m government grants package, a leading health economist warns. In an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, GP umbrella group United General Practice Australia (UGPA) has called on the Government to award practices one-off grants of up to $30,000 for IT and office infrastructure, and up to $500,000 for the capital works. As well as stimulating the economy through job creation, UGPA argued the grants would also help prepare practices for the anticipated influx of medical students and GP ...
The idea of divisions of general practice evolving into divisions of primary health care excites some – and scares others. Kathryn Eccles reports. LIKE a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly. This is how some see the idea of divisions of general practice growing into large regional primary care organisations. Critics argue the real picture is not so beautiful. The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) set the scene recently with its interim report, which proposes “service coordination and population health planning priorities could be enhanced at local level through the establishment of ...
GENERAL practice could face an exodus of practice nurses, who may return to hospitals unless their nursing skills are fully utilised, the first report into the practice nurse profession reveals. MO Practice Nurse has learned the study, conducted by the Australian National University, and led by GP Dr Christine Phillips, found ambitious nurses may already be considering leaving general practice because they did not see a long-term future in primary care. “Nurses say general practice is a great place to work; it’s flexible and respectful,” Dr Phillips said. “But... it’s just not exciting enough and ...
Will the federal government’s new health prevention agenda amount to anything? Amanda Sheppeard takes a look. PREVENTION is better than cure – it’s a truism played out in the nation’s general practice surgeries every day. But, as most GPs will attest, sticking to the health prevention agenda can be a tough ask in a Medicare system that financially penalises longer consultations. However, the new federal government is banging the prevention drum – loudly proclaiming its intention to overhaul the health system using the prevention weapon to battle spiralling rates of chronic disease. The ...