There is some evidence patients are already going to emergency departments instead of their local doctor over concerns the proposed $7 co-payment will increase health care expenses, medical professionals have warned.
Doctors at one Melbourne hospital told the ABC the first weekend after the federal budget, the emergency department recorded its busiest day all year.
“Some of these patients were GP-like presentations, and they were not urgent care patients,” the doctor said.
“There were no other reasons for such a big increase such as a gastro outbreak, or weather surge.”
In the week following the co-payment announcement, there was a 17 per cent increase in patients presenting at this particular Melbourne Hospital.
“We had our busiest days in the previous 12 weeks,” the doctor said.
Medicare figures show that in the lead-up to the announcement about the co-payment, there was a drop in standard GP visits.
The number of “consultation B” visits dropped from 7.4 million visits in April 2013 to 7.1 million this year.
Rural patients will be ‘hit hard’
Rural doctors say the proposed Medicare co-payment is going to hit rural patients hard and will cause significant problems to country medical practices and their communities.
“What will happen with an elderly patient who is in a nursing home and incapable of managing their finances?” Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr Ian Kamerman said.
“Or the dying patient in the final weeks of palliative care, who is seen by the doctor at home? Is the GP really expected to collect $7 from these patients before providing treatment?”
He says rural doctors will face a difficult choice, deciding whether to ask patients to make co-payment or treat patients for free, which will put pressure on their practice’s viability.
“No doubt their after-hours call-outs to the hospital will also increase as more patients present at the local emergency department because they can’t afford to make the co-payment to see the doctor at their practice, or they have delayed seeking treatment because of the additional cost involved,” Dr Kamerman said.
Sources have told the ABC that in meetings with the health sector late last week, Health Minister Peter Dutton said the $7 co-payment was locked in and was not up for negotiation.
On ABC’s Radio National, Mr Dutton said he had discussed the co-payment with groups like the Australian Medical Association, and he was confident the Senate would pass the legislation.
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