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Welcome funding for practice nurses
By Dr Brian Morton
As the new Chair of the AMA Council of General Practice (AMACGP), I am honoured to follow on from my predecessor, Dr Rod Pearce, and wish to acknowledge him for his six years of leadership and service to the Council and to general practitioners.
The AMA has long been advocating for government funding to support the expansion of practices nurses to all general practices. The policy work of the AMACGP on practice nurses underpinned the AMA’s call for GP practice nurse incentives to be available for all practices, as outlined in the AMA blueprint for the delivery of primary health care services in Australia titled General practice in primary care: responding to patient needs. In addition, the AMA has called for GPs to be supported to fully utilise the broad range of skills of practices nurses beyond the very limited scope of services recognised in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).
The additional $390.3 million to support practice nurses announced in the 2010-11 Federal Budget is an acknowledgement by the Government that they have heard the AMA on practice nurses. It also demonstrates the Government’s recognition of the value of GP-led primary health care and the support that practice nurses provide in assisting GPs to provide a comprehensive range of services in caring for patients.
All accredited general practices will now have access to funding per full-time GP of up to $25,000 for a registered nurse and $12,500 for an enrolled nurse. The number of incentives available per practice will be capped and rural and remote practices will be further supported with an additional loading. For practices in the most remote locations, this could equate to an additional $12,500 to an individual practice nurse incentive. All in all, the Government believes that this practice nurse incentive will enable the employment of an extra 4,600 full-time practice nurses right across general practice, from metropolitan to rural and remote areas.
The AMA understands that MBS items for practice nurses will be removed from the Schedule and the intent is that the new funding arrangement will provide for greater flexibility to undertake a wider range of work on behalf of GPs than they are currently funded to do under the MBS. This will enable GPs to provide more comprehensive care to their patients and improve patient access to GP care.
The AMA has welcomed the extra funding but highlighted that the policy has the potential to disadvantage some practices, as well as leave some GPs worse off because of the loss of a scheduled fee for service items. The AMA is already talking through these issues with the Government and working to ensure that appropriate transition arrangements are put in place that will protect GPs and practices alike.
I look forward to working for you to ensure that GPs’ views and concerns are robustly represented within the AMA.
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