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Letter to the editor regarding Medicare Locals
Letter to the editor of Company Director, a publication of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Published 1 June 2011
I read with interest Richard Hemming’s article on Medicare Locals (Company Director, May 2011) and was concerned to find that the views of the medical profession were not accurately portrayed.
While some Divisions of General Practice support Medicare Locals – possibly because they naively believe they can continue business as usual under a different brand – the AMA has conducted surveys which show the majority of doctors do not.
AMA Federal Council, meeting in March, voted to oppose the establishment of Medicare Locals and called on the Government to defer the establishment of any primary health care organisations until there has been genuine consultation with the medical profession, and possibly reshape the program altogether.
Medicare Locals are being allocated a large slice of the Commonwealth health budget – more than half-a-billion dollars over the next four years – yet the medical profession and the public still haven’t been told how they will operate in practice or how they will interact with patients, doctors and other care providers.
The primary concern of the AMA is that Medicare Locals will prevent patients getting access to the care they require. The family doctor’s office should be the centre of care coordination where the staff know the patients, their families, and their community. Patients should not have to contend with the bureaucracy inherent in a Medicare Local to access care providers.
Earlier this year Prime Minister Gillard said that Medicare Locals are intended to become fund-holding bodies. Fund-holding leads to a rationing of patient care, as has been demonstrated repeatedly by the United Kingdom’s notorious National Health Service.
There are also serious questions as to the Governance arrangements for Medicare Locals. Medicare Locals will be required to operate under an organisational membership model, they will be run by consortia of primary care providers and are required to have formalised linkages with Local Hospital Networks and Lead Clinician Groups.
This governance situation isn’t just uncertain as suggested by Tony McBride in the article – it is a disaster-in-waiting for potential directors.
Medicare Locals will aggravate the very problem they are intended to solve: an overly complex and fragmented health system.
Jane Stephens
CEO Australian Medical Association (Victoria)
Preferred Providers
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