The Gold Coast Medical Association says dumping cuts to the Medicare rebate is a “common sense outcome”.
The Federal Government yesterday announced it would abandon plans to cut the rebate for short-term consultations.
Association secretary Dr Phillip Morris said practitioners were never consulted about the scheme.
“The Government I guess wants to save money because they want to keep Medicare viable for the future but on the other hand … the doctors still have to look after the patients and they know what the best needs are for both the patients and the practices, and what it seemed like we needed was for the Government to get down into negotiations with the profession and work out the best deal,” he said.
He said the scheme would have hung practitioners out to dry.
“The changed Medicare items were not going to support quality medical practice and it was really going to cause doctors substantial changes in the way they were looking after patients and the amount of time,” he said.
“It was done in a way that didn’t reflect the needs of the general practice environment for looking after patients.”