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Medicare Locals: costly, complex and coming soon
10 June 2011
Three weeks from today Victoria’s first four Medicare Locals will commence operation and will begin to erode GP centered primary care, AMA Victoria President Dr Harry Hemley said today.
“Despite launching in three weeks time, doctors, patients and the public still do not know where Medicare Locals will be located, who will be running them or what performance targets they will work towards,” said Dr Hemley.
Dr Hemley’s comments followed the announcement of the first tranche of Medicare Locals. Victoria has been allocated 4 Medicare Locals but their locations have not yet been announced.
“Rather than listening to the calls of doctors to defer the implementation of Medicare Locals, the Commonwealth actually increased the number of locations to launch on 1 July from 15 to 19,” said Dr Hemley.
AMA Victoria has written to all State and Federal Victorian Members of Parliament urging them to defer the implementation of Medicare Locals.
“Primary health care reform should be based on providing care as close to the patient as possible. General practices are best placed to do this — not remote health bureaucracies,” said Dr Hemley. “AMA Victoria has continued to campaign for a simpler solution to the problems patients face when navigating our complex and fragmented health system.”
“AMA Victoria’s model would see care coordinators being placed within general practices to work with patients and their doctors. Care coordinators would help patients navigate doctors’ referrals and other care needs. By funding care coordinators at the practice level, unnecessary bureaucracy and associated costs can be minimised.
“What patients require is not the coordination of care providers; patients require the coordination of their care.
“AMA Victoria welcomed funding for care coordinators announced in the Victorian Budget. The Baillieu Government announced it will fund patient treatment coordinators as part of its $89.5 million waiting list and emergency department reform package.
“Following Opposition Health Spokesman Peter Dutton’s address to AMA National Conference I asked him whether the Coalition, if elected, would withdraw funding from Medicare Locals and instead use the funding within general practice,” said Dr Hemley.
“It was welcome to hear Mr Dutton’s answer, a simple but emphatic ‘Yes’.”
“Medicare Local boundaries should correspond with existing Local Government Area boundaries and should not cross state lines. Requiring Medicare Locals to negotiate with multiple State Governments and an increased number of local governments will only increase bureaucracy and red tape.”
Victoria’s Medicare Local boundaries are still being finalised.
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