A new home-visit GP service is being launched in Canberra, which the private owners believe will help ease pressure on busy hospital emergency departments.
The ACT operation is part of the National Home Doctor Service network, which is already operating in four states offering bulk-billing.
Company spokesman Ben Kenneally said the ACT currently has few after-hours medical options.
“This is giving people another option rather than going to an emergency department, particularly at night and on weekends when regular GPs are often closed, and will help relieve some of the pressure on emergency departments,” he said.
“It will give people a real alternative when they know that they don’t really need to go to emergency but sometimes they think its the only option they have.
“It is particularly important for residents of aged care facilities who struggle to get care when they need it and this provides an alternative for their carers. “
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher told 666 ABC Canberra the additional health service would be welcome.
“There’s no government money, it is a private company,” she said.
“We do have CALMS, an after-hours GP service operating at two hospitals.
“But I guess the real opportunity here from my point of view is the choice people will now have that maybe gives them another alternative to the emergency department, or perhaps getting sicker overnight.”
The home doctor visits will be arranged on a triage basis with an on-call GP attending patients.
Mr Kenneally said it was a return to the traditional home visit service that was popular until the mid 1980s.
“There’s no doubt that in the last 30 years there’s been a decline in the number of home visits being carried out,” he said.
“This is a return to the old days in some ways, and our doctors will send a report to the patient’s regular GP the next morning for continuity of care.”