Mark Butler pledges fund boost for role of local GP clinics

Health Minister Mark Butler has promised doctors there is ‘more to come’ in next week’s budget to bolster the primary care sector.

Health Minister Mark Butler addresses the Press Club. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Health Minister Mark Butler has promised doctors there is “more to come” in next week’s budget to bolster the primary care sector as bulk-billing rates plummet and millions of people are forced to wait weeks to see their doctor.

Mr Butler fleshed out the details of the Labor government’s Medicare reforms at the National Press Club, promising billions of dollars would flow to health to lay the foundations for a modern Medicare that would provide intensive preventive care to millions of Australians living with chronic disease.

On top of $2.2 billion already announced for Medicare in the budget, Mr Butler said on Friday that a significant chunk of the $3.3bn over four years that the government would raise from increasing the tobacco excise would be poured into health.

“I am really proud of the fact that so much of this excise that will be raised will be reinvested into health,” Mr Butler said. “Not absolutely every dollar will be, but there are very substantial health programs that are going to be able to be reinvested, including the lung cancer screening program, because we are taking this measure.”

The government has already announced that it will spend $2.2bn bolstering Medicare, including incentives in the budget for GP clinics to stay open after-hours, workforce incentive payments for GP practices to expand multidisciplinary care, a nationwide rollout of voluntary patient enrolment with intensive funding packages for the chronically ill, and an overhaul of digital health systems.

The new “MyMedicare” system, in which patients enrol with a regular doctor at a “home” GP practice, is being described as the foundation for a new blended funding system that will better cater for an ageing population with high levels of chronic illness.

Under MyMedicare, enrolled patients who will be given a patient ID and practices will receive packages of funding for those who frequently visit hospital, to provide preventive healthcare. The role of nurses and allied health staff in multidisciplinary teams is to be expanded under the blended funding model.

Nurses hope the budget will deliver reforms to enable them to directly bill Medicare for services, enabling them to work at their full scope of practice.

Asked at the National Press Club what the announced reforms would do to arrest the decline in bulk billing and crisis in accessing a GP, Mr Butler hinted there would be further measures in the budget to counter these trends.

“There is more in the budget in health,” he said. “There is more in the budget that reflects our strengthening Medicare agenda.

“We are very conscious of the financial pressure that particularly general practice is under. We have been thinking very carefully through ways in which we can alleviate that financial pressure. We can’t undo several years of Medicare rebate freezes in one fell swoop. That is difficult. But health is our most important priority.”