Exclusive by medical reporter Sophie Scott and Alison Branley
Doctors will be urged to cut back on expensive and sometimes risky tests and scans in a bid to protect patients and save the health system money.
The ABC has learned the Choosing Wisely program, which has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States, will be rolled out in Australia.
Under the program, GPs and specialists will nominate common tests and scans that are overused or often unneeded and will then be urged to cut back on them.
The first list will include the top 10 common tests, medications or procedures ordered by GPs.
The current suggested list of investigations includes fewer scans for lower back pain, reduced testing of low-risk heart patients and lowering prescription rates of anti-reflux drugs.
Another suggestion is a crackdown on the use of blood sugar monitoring for patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes.
The Federal Government currently spends $140 million a year subsidising test strips for diabetes blood glucose monitoring machines, which is the same amount spent on diabetic medications.
Doctors said research showed diet and exercise was often more important in treatment of type 2 diabetes cases, and that a one-off quarterly blood test to provide an average blood sugar reading was considered more effective.
Testing does more harm than good: doctors
Doctor Justin Coleman from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said testing sometimes did more harm than good.
“The difficulty with just indiscriminately using tests and treatments without thinking about where it helps, is we end up causing harm,” he said.
“We end up diagnosing things which should never have really been diagnosed [and] we end up causing side effects with medications.”
Dr Coleman said the program was about protecting patients.
“One of the beauties about Choosing Wisely is it’s not a cost-cutting exercise or a bureaucratic thing,” he said.
“It’s a bunch of doctors getting together themselves and deciding where the evidence is pointing towards less treatment or less tests.”
University of Sydney academic Adam Elshaug said doctors could choose from more than 5,000 Medicare items, so there was plenty of room for savings.
“We’ve shown that … the results from America, if we translated those to Australia, it would equate to around $500-600 million in annual savings if we could reduce the use of those tests in this country,” he said.
Diet and exercise important in managing condition
Mary Pillai hates needles, so when the Sydney woman developed type 2 diabetes it was the realisation of her worst fear.
What followed was regular blood sugar tests and insulin injections.
“At one stage when my blood glucose levels were really high I had to do it eight times a day,” she said.
Her condition became so bad her doctor put her on a strict carbohydrate-free diet combined with regular exercise.
It worked, and Ms Pillai reduced her daily medication to one tablet.
Her specialist recommended she only check her blood glucose levels at home once a fortnight and receive a quarterly pathology test.
The experience highlighted the importance of diet and exercise, rather than blood testing in managing Ms Pillai’s condition.
She said she was surprised to learn the cost of the test strips but noted patients should still do some testing.
“I still feel the blood testing is important because it makes you aware of your condition,” she said.
“You think, ‘OK, I’ve been playing up, I’ve been doing things that are not right’.
“You know, ‘I’ve got to go back to where I was’ so I quickly changed my diet.”
Experts said patients should check with their doctor when it came to the frequency of blood sugar monitoring.
Full details of the Choosing Wisely program will be unveiled later this month.