State health department estimates hospitals will have to cope with an extra half million patients a year if payment is introduced
Emergency departments in New South Wales will be flooded with an extra half a million people a year if the federal government introduces its GP co-payment, internal health department documents suggest.
The move would increase emergency department costs by $80m a year, according to a preliminary study prepared for the NSW government in May. The analysis by NSW Health was based on a $6 GP fee, rather than the planned $7 fee.
The NSW opposition leader, John Robertson, said the co-payment would be a “disaster”.
“It will smash the NSW health system,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Thousands of people will be forced to turn up in emergency departments to avoid paying the fee to their local GP.”
The documents were obtained through a call for papers by the NSW Legislative Council on the impact of the GP co-payment on NSW.
There were 2.6m presentations to NSW emergency departments in 2012-13. However, the study shows that figure would jump by 27% with 500,000 extra attendances.
“The GP tax will be a disaster for families using emergency departments,” Robertson said.
The NSW health minister, Jillian Skinner, said the study used “rudimentary scenarios” resulting in “preliminary” figures.
“[NSW Health] has undertaken no detailed modelling on potential impacts since the federal budget handed down in May, and I have not commissioned any modelling,” she said.