Super clinics failing to deliver on service

THE federal government's $645 million GP super clinic rollout is failing to meet its goal of providing bulk-billing and after-hours doctors.

THE federal government's $645 million GP super clinic rollout is failing to meet its goal of providing bulk billing and after-hours doctors.

The policy, which was designed to take pressure off overworked emergency departments, is running behind schedule and is under fire for diverting scarce resources from areas of most need.

In 2007 Labor's election commitment clearly stated the clinics would boast "after-hours care, with a link in to the relevant state or territory health call centre" and "encouraged to bulk-bill".

During the election campaign in August Health Minister Nicola Roxon defended the clinics as providing improved services, after-hours care and bulk-billing.

However, an audit by The Weekend Australian of all seven of the operational clinics found just one - Devonport in Tasmania - had after-hours services that were run in-house. The others either had no available out-of-hours doctors or provided the contact number for a GP who serviced the local region on their answering machine.

Only two of the seven clinics audited - Ballan in Victoria and Strathpine in Queensland - provided universal bulk-billing, with most only providing it to under 16s and concession card-holders.

Labor pledged $275m to 36 GP super clinics in its first term, before announcing a further 28 as part of a new $370.2m health package.

The Health Department yesterday confirmed that clinics in Devonport, Ballan, Strathpine, Geelong (Victoria), Ipswich (Queensland), Palmerston (Northern Territory), and Port Stephens (NSW) were fully operational. A further 57 clinics are delivering early services, under construction or planned. The department's incoming government brief to the minister, released under Freedom of Unformation laws this week, revealed clinics at Morisset in NSW and another at Annerley in southern Brisbane were behind schedule and had missed the projected completion date. Ms Roxon last night told The Weekend Australian bulk billing and after-hours services were just some of the factors taken into account by the GP super clinic assessment panel.

"We want GP super clinics to suit local needs," she said. "Bulk-billing and after-hours services may be the focus for many communities, but for other communities more mental health services, better access to dietitians might also be priorities."

Opposition health spokesmanAndrew Southcott said the super clinics program was "flawed from the beginning". "What was promised was bulk-billing, out-of-hours (services) and the full range of allied health, radiology, pathology etc. Instead we see patchy delivery of those programs," he said.

Australian Medical Association president Andrew Pesce said the government could have simply given existing practices more incentives to operate after hours or bulk-bill. "I have a strong suspicion you'd get the same improvement, or better, for less money invested," he said.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president Sally McCarthy said emergency departments needed more senior doctors and hospital beds, not super clinics.