Health announcement shows misguided investment and wrong priorities: RACGP
Royal Australian College of GPs Media Release
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has warned the Federal Government that it has the wrong priorities when it comes to addressing Australia’s healthcare needs.
It comes following the Government announcing an additional 29 urgent care clinics as part of an $8.5 billion federal government investment in health in next week’s Budget.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins labelled today’s announcement a misguided investment.
“There is no substitute for the personalised quality care delivered by a GP who knows you and your history,” she said.
“The urgent care clinics will make some difference, but the Government should be boosting investment in general practice care so that no patients anywhere are left behind. There is no greater health need right now than supporting people struggling with their mental health and suffering from chronic conditions. That’s why we are calling on the Government to prioritise funding to ensure mental health and chronic disease care is affordable for all patients.
“Instead, the Government has chosen to continue its misguided policy of rolling out what it calls urgent care clinics. Urgent care clinics take years to roll out, create confusion for the public, and disrupt the care people usually receive from their regular GP. These clinics are also likely to redirect limited general practice workforce capacity away from regular clinics where they are needed most.
“Every year more than 22 million Australians choose to see a GP for essential healthcare. They deserve an affordable system.”
Dr Higgins say there is no doubt that the biggest health issues confronting Australians is chronic disease and mental illness, but funding for these items is missing from today’s announcement.
“This looks like a missed opportunity,” she said.
“Chronic disease and mental health concerns are among the top three reasons people seek care from their GP. The fact these measures don’t seem to be included in the Government’s $8.5 billion health Budget, shows the Government has the wrong priorities for fixing our health system.
“We know funding gets results. Boosting funding for mental health and chronic conditions will improve affordability, access, and health outcomes for those most in need. It is bitterly disappointing that the Government has chosen to go another way. They really do appear to have their priorities all wrong.”
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9 comments
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Dalron
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Fred
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Terence Mills
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wam
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Clakka
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wam
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Dalron
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Clakka
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Tones
Return to home pageThe days of personalised healthcare from GPs is long gone. Ten minute appointments and two to four weeks to get those appointments is not good healthcare. I miss the days when my GP took as long as was needed for the appointment and I didn’t need a bank loan to pay for the longer time. I can’t help feeling money is all that matters with GPs these day.
If GPs are the font of great health care, how is it that none I’ve seen can find a cause as to why I’ve lost 30 kg in body mass, mostly muscle, and cannot raise my arms above my head anymore – give me strength! If I could find a specialised “unexplained weight loss” provider I’d be on their doorstep in a trice.
Presumably investigations have identified the need for the “Urgent Care Clinics”, so the RACGP should pull its horns in.
BTW: Have a look at your Medicare records (https://www2.medicareaustralia.gov.au/moaonline/#/claimHistory) and you might find some entries of visits to the GP or tests or other services you cannot remember doing/receiving. I’m not saying it is all about money, but it is a factor.
Instead, the Government has chosen to continue its misguided policy of rolling out what it calls urgent care clinics.
I must have missed something. I thought that the urgent care clinics were to take the pressure off the hospital’s ‘Accident & Emergency’ departments which more and more patients had been attending because they either could not access a GP or had no regular GP.
For example, my GP is not taking any new patients and I understand that is quite common among local GP practices. So those unable to access a GP go to their local hospital A&E which is clearly not satisfactory. The urgent care clinics were, I thought, to provide an alternative.
What am I missing ?
Another gift from the lying rodent,
These days few doctors have their own practice.
They are workers to the big businesses which run health ergo money is the number one priority for medical practices.
The health system lurched into crisis due to gross mismanagement and funding withdrawal by the previous LNP govts.
Albeit, its two-tiered, public / private health system is ranked 5th in the world and 3rd for ‘choice’.
The health system is a broad and unwieldy beast at the best of times, and it encompasses a vastness of preferences of various consumers.
Seeking a practitioner that suits one’s purposes, and in whom one trusts, is no easy task. My career had me moving around Oz extensively, and certainly the extent of choice, and availability of doctors who fitted my expectations was never an easy task. Near to my retirement, after several years of vastly reduced (or no) income, I was back in my place of origin, Melbourne, with a very good GP, and plenty of available services. I was diagnosed with a serious incurable illness. I was treated exceptionally well by via the public system. I moved to the regions, and to say the least it was like herding cats trying to get a continuation of those services within the region, but persistence paid off, and I found nearby an exceptional GP, and excellent hospital and specialist services within a half-hour train ride.
Through and subsequent to the pandemic, and from the rapid onset of the dire affects of climate change has seen massive pressure come upon the system, and adding to that, global supply-chain, and broader global economic issues like business stagnation, and inflation / cost-of-living matters all bringing loss of confidence, and worse still, a substantial increase in mental health matters. My GP, the owner of a well run clinic, continues to provide excellent service, although is severely stretched, but with some relief by the availability of ‘allied services’. She agrees that the health system whilst in a necessary growth and transition is passing through a chaotic stage.
Whilst there are huge competing forces at play, Labor is making inroads into reform in the following (eg.):
NDIS
Aged Care
Closing the Gap
Homelessness & affordable / social housing
Resilience & recovery from climate change affect
Mental health services
Nurse training and provision
Initiatives on Violence against Women & Children
….. and so forth and so on ….
Here’s Labor’s 2023 National Platform (as determined by the 49th National Conference)
It’s worth reading Chapter 4 (pp58-71) – ‘A strong & Healthy Society’
https://www.alp.org.au/media/3569/2023-alp-national-platform.pdf
good one Clakka,
what do you think, rosswell, a fair job????
” Have a look at your Medicare records and you might find some entries of visits to the GP or tests or other services you cannot remember doing/receiving.”
Definitely a good chance of that! Also charging for long visits when my appt was less than the set 15 minutes. I often considered reporting the GP but then I wouldn’t have a local GP.
I well remember a decade or so ago, an eminent professor of health services from Harvard saying:
“If the world’s airlines were run like the world’s health systems, there’d be planes falling out of the sky and dead people strewn everywhere.”
Last night a doctor from Royal Australian College of GPs was advising the public there is no need to be worried about Astra Zeneca withdrawing its gene therapy (‘vaccine’) from the market. Apparently blood clots are rare, unless you are the person struck down. This is why vaccines were traditionally tested for 7-10 years. Now they want to juice people, including children and pregnant mums, after 100 days of testing.
Since 2021 doctors have been threatened with suspensions by AHPRA, and in at least 6 cases actually suspended, for daring to advise their patients that the mandated ‘vaccines’ might not be as safe as the Pharma Sales Promotion team, chief health ministers, politicians & rabid news readers claimed. I’m surprised RACGP is still pushing on.
As far as I’m concerned, all people who had the AZ shot and subsequently clocked up a medical bill for some illness doctors were at a loss to diagnose should be given a refund.
Next month Clive Palmer is hosting a ‘Freedom’ tour featuring Tucker Carlson. One of the speakers is Dr Melissa McCann who is involved in a class action re the covid vaccines:
https://drmelissamccann.substack.com/p/covid-vaccine-class-action
There is a reason the govt never mandated the ‘vaccines’ for themselves and there is a reason why autopsies are avoided and there’s a reason why live blood analysis was virtually banned from 2021-23.
If you haven’t worked it out yet, the days of deferring to a doctor as the only source of info are gone. Consult by all means, then follow up with your own research. Review sites such drugs.com to investigate the drugs recommended by your doctor, eg try NIH or Elsevier papers on the topic.
When the whole medical mafiosa banned ivermectin and the media screamed like bansees and spread misinfo that it was a horse dewormer rather than a product that had won a Nobel Prize for use in HUMANS, well, right there was the tell – they were all prepared to play the public for fools. Some 78,000 medical professionals covered by AHPRA walked away from the job rather than submit themselves to an experimental gene therapy. I imagine most of the remainder would have walked but their financial situation held them back – mortgages, student fees, etc.
As an aside, and not as advice, I’ve been detoxing my body with zeolite (product of Aust):
Critical Review on Zeolite Clinoptilolite Safety and Medical Applications in vivo
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6277462
The reason for detox: numerous live blood analysis reports have recently shown evidence that both the blood of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are subject to some kind of unnatural degradation. Given the transhumanism push by Elon Musk, Yuval Harari, etc – I thought, why not nip it in the bud with a low cost safe detox?