Dr Domnic Bannerman from Doctor to your Door brought the service to Newcastle after success in Townsville (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)
Dr Fiona Van Leeuwen, Chair of Hunter General Practitioners Association, says she’s concerned about the high cost of providing the convenience of door-to-door visits. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)
Once upon a time the prospect of a doctor coming to your home meant someone was really sick, someone had died, or you were very wealthy.
Today, the mobile bulk billing sector is booming across Australia.
The Hunter is no exception but now local GP’s are challenging the true cost to the community of the new services.
Classified as medical deputising services, the first one set up in the Hunter was the Newcastle After Hours Mobile Medical Service, providing after hours home visits for 46 years.
Before midnight these services are bulk-billed at $129 per visit.
Last year Dr Dominic Bannerman started Doctor To Your Door after its success in Townsville.
Dr Bannerman told ABC Newcastle that he saw an opportunity here to reduce pressure on hospital emergency departments, especially for non emergencies.
“We’re a primary care service. We are there to try and nip these kind of serious conditions in the bud before they become really expensive things for the government. says Dr Bannerman.
“If a patient gets admitted to ED (Emergency Department), that patient costs the government $400. If they use an ambulance that’s another $400. So if they end up getting admitted to the hospital that’s over a thousand dollars a day for that patient.
“Our service is designed to kind of nip those problems in the bud before they become real emergencies.”
Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley recently expressed concern that private after hours providers were gaming the system.
Dr Bannerman has refuted the claim and says his service is not “gaming the system”
“What’s happening here is that there are more of these services springing up in regional areas now where there never were. he says.
“These services have always been in major cities, now they are coming to regional centres. That’s why there has been an increase because now places like Newcastle.”
The Hunter GP’s Association is concerned that the mobile bulk billing services are not the best use of scarce health resources.
Chair Dr Fiona Van Leeuwen sees the Hunter’s GP Access After Hours service as the gold standard for after hours care.
“After ten years with GP Access we’ve found that only a small number of after hours visits are actually necessary. says Dr Van Leeuwen.
“It’s difficult for people to decide what the urgency of the medical problem is, and I think having a really sound, supported, considered approach to that is useful. GP Access after hours home visits are carefully triaged.
“It’s important to make the distinction between convenience, urgency and need. If we had an unlimited pot of resources than perhaps we could do things any old time we wanted to.
“I think an alternative model that focused on exceptional phone triage will prevent people from attending a perceived free but ultimately more costly system.”