Rural areas may see an exodus of GPs if Medicare Locals do not maintain the support services to GP practices that have been provided by divisions, a Senate inquiry has heard.
Chris Mitchell, CEO of Health Workforce Queensland, says GPs are becoming “disenfranchised” in the transition to Medicare Locals as GP divisions have their funding terminated.
Speaking at a Senate rural health hearing in Townsville, Mr Mitchell said GP practices had relied heavily on divisions for areas such as IT support.
“The divisions did a lot of boutique work for practices and I do not think that stuff is going to continue [with Medicare Locals].
The IT support in some of these divisions has been sensational and it has kept those GP businesses going ... But I am not sure that that is going to continue,” he told the hearing. Mr Mitchell said the town of Weipa was likely to lose its GP practice because the GP division in Cairns that had supported the practice had lost its funding and been replaced by a Medicare Local.He said Medicare Locals were preoccupied with setting up and focusing on developing after hours care and population planning programs rather than on support for local practices.
