Doctors are saying they are worried about the Federal Government’s new plan to replace the former Labor government’s Medicare Locals with larger Primary Health Networks (PHN).
The rollout of 30 PHNs is set to take over from 61 Medicare Locals, taking effect from July, but the operators have not yet been named despite applications for tenders closing in January.
Chief executive of the Grampians Medicare Local, Andrew McPherson, said his staff were doing their jobs but that the delays were frustrating.
The Grampians service includes the regional city of Ballarat and stretches to the South Australian border, but under the new model, six primary health networks will replace the 17 Medicare Locals in Victoria.
“Make the announcement, end the uncertainty and let us get on with transitioning people and services into the new environment,” Mr McPherson said.
“I can’t guarantee any of them a job in the new environment because we don’t know who the PHN is likely to be.”
Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley said she was confident the new networks would be “extremely effective”.
“It’s been terrific as a new Health Minister to work closely with my department and my colleagues across the country and say what do we want these primary health networks to achieve,” she said.
But the Australian Medical Association’s Doctor Brian Morton said he was concerned about conflicts of interest that could arise under the new model.
“If one of the tenders and members on the board is for example, a private health insurer, then they will also be providing services to their members and should be to others as well,” he said.
“How can they do it? How will they actually manage that conflict of interest between serving their members and serving the community properly?”
Dr Morton said he expected the shift to primary health networks to fill local gaps but said the widening of health boundaries would lead to redundancies.
“The increased size means that they’ll have a bigger job to do, and they’ll have to do a better job at matching the needs of the community to the funding and the services they can provide,” he said.
“So it’s an issue we’ve got to wait and watch.”