GP urges Health Minister Greg Hunt to step up over coronavirus crisis
A GP has called on Health Minister Greg Hunt to “step up” and allow doctors to be able to perform telephone consultations as they prepare for clinics to be flooded with coronavirus patients.
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A doctor has lashed out at Health Minister Greg Hunt, urging him to “step up” and help GPs manage coronavirus patients through telephone consultations.
Under the existing Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) provisions, doctors can only claim for patients they say face-to-face with the consultation times identified by different item numbers.
Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy last week told Senate estimates that he was considering the option.
But in a YouTube video posted last week, Victorian GP Todd Cameron urged Mr Hunt to act now.
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He said adding telephone consultation to item numbers 23 and 36 would help clinics better manage patients until they needed to come in.
The founder of M3 Health clinics said his clinic was already seeing between five to 10 patients a day who were coming to see doctors with anxiety around “cold-like symptoms”, which could be dealt with via a phone or video consultation.
In cases where somebody may have coronavirus, it was also in everybody’s best interest they were quarantined given GP clinics places typically filled with frail and elderly people.
Seeing so many potential COVID-19 cases meant GPs would also exhaust the government stockpile of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), he said.
“I want to propose something that would change this,” Dr Cameron said.
“What I propose we do is remove the obligation for attendance with item number 23 and 36 so they can be used in any environment, be it telephone consultation, or video consultation.
“If you do a phone consultation, if people are well, they can remain in isolation.
Dr Cameron said patients could have a regular phone check to see if they required any further medical attention.
“So Greg Hunt, I need you make this decision ASAP because you need GPs support, you need to be making sure you are spreading this across all of the community,” he said.
“These times require leadership … and you’re going to need to step up and provide this guidance ASAP.
“So my question to you Greg, is if you’re not going to do this, why not and when can we expect answers from you?
Doctors’ groups have been calling for telehealth capability for years, but so far it has only been permitted in limited circumstances.
Originally published as GP urges Health Minister Greg Hunt to step up over coronavirus crisis