New Survey Aims to Find Out How Much Time Hunter Residents Spend in GP Waiting Rooms

BY ISABEL EVERETT 

Hunter residents are being urged to fill out a survey released today, the next time they find themselves in a GP waiting room, to find out where the longest wait times are being experienced. 

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has launched the National Waiting Time Survey, which will ask patients how long it took them to get an appointment, how long they sat in the waiting room, which suburb their appointment was in and the healthcare provider.  

“We know Australian families find it hard to get in to see their GP, and when they finally get an appointment, they almost always get stuck in the waiting room,” said the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis.

"We know our health system is already under pressure and isn’t adapting to our aging and growing population," he said. 

The National Waiting Time Survey will quantify where patients are spending the longest time sitting in a waiting room, and where patients have the shortest wait to see a doctor.

"We want to understand the full extent of, and geography of the bottlenecks so we can address them at the source,” Mr Tambassias said.

According to the ABS, almost 1 in 5 people in Emergency Departments could have been treated by a GP.

Figures also show 20 percent, or 33.3 million of Australia’s 158.3 million GP visits could be diverted to a pharmacy for treatment instead.

“We already know Australians are waiting too long to be seen by a GP. When patients can’t get an appointment, they are left with the choice to either go without an appointment and ignore their ailment, diagnose themselves on the internet or present to an ED," Mr Tambassis said. 

"These are all bad outcomes for patients and our health system."

“Next time patients are sitting in a GP’s waiting room they need to fill out the survey to help us understand where the bottlenecks are so we can fix the system,” said Mr Tambassis.

The National Waiting Time Survey can be found at the fixthesystem.com.au/survey website. 

Newcastle Residents are Paying More than the State and National Average for GP Visits

BY ISABEL EVERETT

New figures released by the NSW Health Department show Newcastle residents are paying more than the State and National average for a GP visit. 

Out of pocket costs have increased by 35% over the last six years, with Novacastrians paying an average of $38 to see a doctor. 

The data follows a change to medicare rebates introduced on January 1st 2020, which saw bulk billing incentives for GP'S in the Newcastle area decrease from $9.50 to $6.30 per patient. 

Newcastle MP, Sharon Claydon says it's costing people and their families too much.

'"We have a fantastic health system in Newcastle really, but it is one that should always be premised on universal access," she said. 

"The point of having a universal health scheme is ensuring there are quality health services which can be delivered all around the nation regardless of where you live or how much money you've got in your wallet." 

Ms Claydon says many Hunter residents choose to forgo doctor's visits because of the prohibitive costs. 

"People are already facing a growing burden of housing and energy bills and record low wages, so it's no wonder they're avoiding or delaying doctors visits," she said. 

"The challenge is how do we continue given they are now faced with these price barriers and record highs in out of pocket expenses."

The data also revealed only 23.2% of Newcastle residents are always bulk billed for specialist appointments, which average at $84.53 per appoinment. 

                                          Image Credit: Croakey

Roundtable Discussion to Boost Regional GPs

BY GARY-JON LYSAGHT

The federal government has held a Rural Health Stakeholder Roundtable in Canberra yesterday, with ways to boost GPs in the Hunter and regional Australia high on the priority list.

Lyne MP, David Gillespie

The government has begun steps to introduce a National Rural Generalist Pathway, which will help improve access to training for doctors in the regions.

It comes after new figures were released, showing Australia will have a surplus of 7-thousand doctors by 2030.

Assistant Rural Health minister David Gillespie says doctors need access to frontline training because they never stop learning.

“You spend more time doing that training after you graduate than you do at university,” he says.

“At the moment, the preponderance of that happens in metropolitan centres and we [the Turnbull Government] want that post-graduate training to be expanded and rolled out in more rural and regional centres.”

Dr Gillespie says the Pathway will help keep doctors in the regions when they finish their study, rather than seeing them flock to the capitals.

The roundtable also looked at establishing a National Rural Health Commissioner to work with frontline GPs and all levels of government to get the best outcome for regional Australia.

David Gillespie says they’ll have a lot on their plate.

“He or she will liaise with universities, with local health districts, with regional training organisations to make sure we get a certain slice of the medical workforce directed, as much as we can, towards rural and regional Australia,” he says.

The roundtable walked away with a need to decentralise the medical workforce in Australia

 and get it out into the regions.

“We need to keep working on medical workforce distribution across the country because we have plenty of medical professionals coming through university,” Dr Gillespie says.

“We want to put policies of action in place to make sure rural and regional Australia – and remote Australia – get more [of the] medical workforce.

“Mental health, dental workforce, Indigenous workforce, pharmacy workforce.  We’re not just focusing on getting doctors distributed everywhere; we want the whole suite.”