Number of GP visits in Australia down by 3 million as doctors continue to abandon bulk billing
Figures quietly released in the shadow of the budget last month have painted a stark picture of the broken bulk billing system.
NSW
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Health Minister Mark Butler has blamed “artificial inflation” for a massive 3 million drop in the GP visits in the financial year so far as he defended his government’s record on boosting the number of bulk billing doctors.
After the Daily Telegraph revealed there was a 4 per cent decline in the number of bulk billing rate — which now sits at 79 per cent — alongside a 3 million decline in GP visits, Mr Butler said GP visits had gone up artificially during Covid because of mandatory vaccinations.
“There is also a decline in the number of GP visits because I know it’s hard to find a GP, we need to boost the number of GP,” he said.
“The figures that are in the papers today reflect the fact that we’re coming out of COVID. There was an artificial inflation, if you like, in the number of short visits to the doctor to get those bulk billed vaccinations for COVID.
“There were tens of millions of them, and obviously we’ve moved beyond that.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the decline in GP visits was placing even more pressure on the state’s hospitals.
“The reality is, NSW hospitals are shouldering the burden of people holding off seeing a doctor while their conditions deteriorate to a point where they need to present to an emergency department,” he said.
“Alternatively, they are using EDs as a GP.
“This is resulting in record demand on our hospitals and longer wait times.”
Figures quietly released by the health department in the shadow of the budget last month showed the bulk billing rate declined by a further 4 per cent in the financial year as of March despite the new government initiatives to make healthcare affordable.
Sydney’s eastern and central primary healthcare networks declined even further with a 5 per cent fall in the bulkbilling rate while northern Sydney followed at 4.9 per cent.
After The Daily Telegraph contacted Health Minister Mark Butler’s office, they released new data that showed the figures have improved since the incentive increase in November 1 last year but are still sitting at 79 per cent.
The boosted payments are only available when a GP sees concession card holders and children under 16 years.
The department data also revealed that there had been three million fewer overall GP visitations in the financial year so far.
Bulk billed GP services also fell by 2 million after the Albanese government’s incentive came in.
The added cash has failed to make a dent in NSW where there was just a 2.7 per cent increase since October last year — the lowest of any state or territory.
Dr Barri Phatarfod has worked as a GP in Sydney and regional NSW for more than 30 years and said the incentive did not make “a lot of difference”.
“Although it has risen recently, the Medicare rebate is still only around a third of the standard private practice fee,” she said.
“Bulk billing doctors will either be earning one third of what their private colleagues do or have to see three times as many patients.
“Initially I worked at bulk billing practices but over the years this has become unsustainable.”
Sydney GP Dr Daniel Chanisheff said his clinic in Waterloo, in inner Sydney, would have to shut its doors if they bulk billed their patients.
He said the tripled incentive and Urgent Care Clinics are still a long way away from solving the state of bulk billing with his clinic charging patients an average of $50 out of pocket for a standard consult and $80 out of pocket for a longer consult.
“The bulk billing incentive isn’t for everyone, it’s for people who are pensioners or on concession cards and for a clinic in Central Sydney, it doesn’t make sense for us,” he said.
“Most clinics run at a 5 per cent profit margin, to bulk bill would mean a 60 per cent cut for most people.
“So they would be running at a 55 per cent loss.”
Dr Chanisheff said peak body Australian Medical Association had suggested consult rebates should be twice what they are.
“The tripled incentive still doesn’t catch up to the gap and clinics that bulk bill those people are still taking a cut,” he said.
“I don’t think we ever had universal healthcare. We just had a very good system and that is gone now.
Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the trends will have “seriously flow-on consequences for the entire healthcaresystem”.
“It has literally never been more expensive to see a non-bulk billing GP, with Australians paying the highest amount of GPfees on record,” she said.
“This is extremely worrying at a time when Australians are already facing skyrocketing cost-of-living pressure, forcing themto choose between seeing their doctor and paying the bills.”
Health Minister Mark Butler blamed “a decade of cuts and neglect” by the Coalition for the bulk billing rates.
“Doctors’ groups have called our tripling of the bulk billing incentive a ‘game changer’ – and clearly it is,” he said.
“The Albanese Government committed to making it easier for people to see a bulk billing doctor – and that is exactly what is happening right around the country, particularly in rural and regional Australia.”
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