Major changes to Medicare and how they affect your family

More than $1 billion will be spent to improve Medicare and make it easier for patients to get access to health care. Here is what could happen.

A revolution in Medicare could see X-ray machines installed in GP clinics, nurses employed to help patients navigate the health system, and patients given extra care if they enrol with one GP practice.

The Albanese Government has appointed a 16-member taskforce to decide how to spend an extra $750 million over the next three years strengthening Medicare, with the money to flow from next July.

The taskforce that will draw up plans for spending the money meets for the first time on Friday and a range of innovative plans are already on the table.

A proposal to turn some GP practices into mini emergency departments open after hours and equipped with X-ray machines and pathology testing is one idea to be discussed.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president Dr Karen Price said one such clinic in Launceston already receives $150 from the state government for each patient it treats and keeps out of the hospital system.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) wants some of the new money spent funding nurses to help patients with chronic illnesses figure out how to get the health services they need.

Former health department chief and University of Melbourne Professor Stephen Duckett said another option would provide extra government funding to GP clinics that enrolled patients with chronic conditions aged over 75.

The extra funding would pay for additional care from nurses, diabetes educators, physiotherapists that is not currently funded by the Medicare system.

“Instead of all of the care being initiated by the patient in response to a problem, some of the care can be GP, initiated, a nurse calling the patient to say how are you going, we’ve noticed you’re not taking all your medicines. So being much more preventively oriented,’ he said.

Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler. Picture: NCA NewsWire/James Gourley

Health Minister Mark Butler will chair the taskforce and said it was vital to reduce pressure on hospitals by better funding primary care.

“The average out-of-pocket cost for GP services has risen 60 per cent over the past decade,” Mr Butler said.

“Our strengthening Medicare Taskforce are a diverse group of health experts and consumer representatives who will provide practical advice to help us start fixing our health care and make it easier for Australians to see a doctor.”

In addition to the $750 million to strengthen Medicare, Labor will provide GP clinics with grants of between $25,000 and $50,000 to upgrade IT systems, purchase new equipment, upgrade ventilation and infection control.

And it has promised to set up 50 urgent care clinics to keep people out of hospital emergency departments.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Karen Price. Picture: Supplied

Dr Price said the nation was facing a GP shortage because the doctors were poorly paid compared to specialists and “courageous thinking” was required to reform the sector.

Reforms in Denmark, which saw general practitioners better paid and resourced to deliver preventive health care, meant fewer people became seriously ill and admitted to hospitals. As a result a huge number of hospitals closed — down from 98 to 32 as a result.

ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler said some of the extra funding should be spent on expanding the role of nurse practitioners in the health system.

Nurses or GP clinics could be given block funding to keep certain patient groups with chronic illnesses well and out of hospital.

“The current fee for service model incentivises only treating somebody when they get sick, when you should get funded for keeping them well,” Ms Butler said.

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