THE federal government's decision to freeze Medicare patient rebates until 2018 could lead to smaller GP practices closing their doors and fewer doctors bulk-billing, says a senior South Coast doctor.
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Dr Vicki McCartney, who will represent the region's GPs on the board of new primary health network Coordinare, has warned about the ramifications that a freeze would have for patients and health services.
Last week, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners launched an "antifreeze campaign" to explain the effect the decision would have on general practices and provide form letters for patients and GPs to write directly to Health Minister Sussan Ley.
"The freeze on patient rebates will force GPs to pass costs onto patients, resulting in serious implications for access to, and the provision of, quality clinical services," president Dr Frank R.Jones said.
The Medicare rebate freeze has been in place since 2012, under the previous Labor government, and the Australian Medical Association have also been lobbying the Coalition government to increase the rebate.
The Nowra-based Dr McCartney congratulated the college of GPs and Australian Medical Association on their campaigns.
"There has been no increase in rebates for Medicare consultations in that time and they are looking at keeping that frozen until mid-2018," she said.
"That's a very considerable period of time when we know wages go up, electricity goes up. It really is a small business most GPs are running."
Dr McCartney said that many GPs across the South Coast bulk-billed all their patients, or a percentage of them.
"That simply means, in relative terms, we are receiving less for our services ... as the population ages, the problems become more complex."
Those patients who are charged to see the doctor could also face higher costs as fees rose and rebates remain static.
"Our concern is that if we don't keep up with what the costs are for practice we can't necessarily continue to practise effectively," she said.
"There's certainly already been, not in our region, practices that say they may have to close their doors."
Dr McCartney said that small GP practices will struggle.
"Our other concern is people putting off coming (in) if they perceive the cost has gone up and that might be because people aren't bulk-billed as much," she said.
"Most practices will be reviewing their charges and may need to privately bill more patients.
"I think most doctors will look seriously at whether they can afford to bulk-bill all patients."
GPs were the first point of call for most sick people and "to put up a financial barrier was not a good way to treat things early".