Lyne MP David Gillespie is defending the new Federal budget saying it will bring real benefits to his electorate.
The Budget is under fire from many sectors but Dr Gillespie said among the wins for the region is over a billion dollars in Pacific Highway spending.
Dr Gillespie said a $7 GP co-payment is vital for places like the mid north coast with rapidly growing and ageing populations.
“The reality going forward with an ageing population, the needs and demands on the health system are going up,” he said.
“We are moving those savings from the co-payment into the world’s largest medical research fund.
So putting a barrier up at that level just doesn’t make any sense, it’s just a quick and lazy way to make money.
Dr David Gregory, Port Macquarie MP
“So it’s staying in the health portfolio, it is unfortunately a necessary arrangement that we have to make Medicare sustainable in the long run.
“The $7 co-payment stays in the Health Budget.
“The reality is 236 million visits to the GP by 22 million of us.
“I would love to have a bottomless pit of money but we are facing up to the reality of an ageing population.”
But Port Macquarie based general practitioner David Gregory said Dr Gillespie has some of his facts wrong.
He said the real statistic for GP consultations is about 110-million a year, an average of about five consultations per patient.
“The figure Dr Gillespie quoted was more than double that,” he said.
“I think it’s the number of consultations that include radiology and pathology so it’s certainly not the number of GP consultations.
“But even if it was it still seems a silly figure to quote, and it still seems silly to suggest that there are too many people going to general practice.
“People don’t go to general practice for fun they go for some medical purpose.
“Very rarely do we see people who we think shouldn’t have come to see us.
“For example people with skin lesions will come and see us.
“Sometimes they’re minor things and sometimes they’re melanomas.
“How would people know the difference?
“That’s why they tell us to come and see us.
“So putting a barrier up at that level just doesn’t make any sense.
“It’s just a quick and lazy way to make money.”
Source: ABC