IF you are going to get sick, best do it on Brisbane’s southside.
After all, when it comes to doctors who offer 100 per cent bulk billing services, the number available south of the city is certainly looking rosier.
St Flannan’s Social Justice Action Group (SJAG) started to ask the question about whether the southside had more bulk billing services than the northside after it began investigating options for low-income clients.
The group soon discovered that there were very few medical practices on the northside that offered 100 per cent bulk billing services. In fact, SJAG is aware of only 28 practices from inner Brisbane to Caboolture and Bribie Island that offer 100 per cent bulk billing services.
“You drive on the southside and you see signs everywhere for 100 per cent bulk billing practices,” spokeswoman Andrea Barton said.
But
Ms Barton said SJAG aimed to create a database of bulk billing general practitioners to help patients.
“I am not sure whether the northside is an anomaly,” she said.
Ms Barton said without 100 per cent bulk billing clinics, low-income patients had trouble properly caring for their health.
“Cost should not be a barrier to going to the doctor,” she said.
Australian Medical Association (Qld) president Dr Chris Zappala said a “number of factors influenced whether or not a practice decides to bulk bill, including socio-economic factors and patient demographics”.
Nundah GP Richard Kidd said the failure of the rebate to keep up with CPI and governments’ expectation of GPs managing conditions were forcing doctors to reconsider bulk billing practices.
Ferny Grove Family Practice manager Shan Siva said providing 100 per cent bulk billing was challenging.
“If the (Medicare) freeze continues over the next three years it will be very difficult to continue,” he said.
Practice GP Dr Rathai Shan said when patients could not afford their GP “they go to the hospital”.
“This increases the workload of already overloaded doctors treating patients who can be treated at a GP clinic,” he said
“When I worked at a private billing practice, patients were reluctant to come again for follow-ups because they needed to pay again.
“This put their health under risk and they would miss the continuity of follow-up care.”
Mr Shan said governments should consider “at the very least, bulk-billing practices (being) paid an incentive to continue their bulk billing services further”.
He said when patients chose to go to hospital and not pay upfront it was “costing a fortune for the government”.
And it appears the fallout from this month’s Federal Budget is continuing, with 60 per cent of GPs revealing in medical journal Australian Doctor survey that they would introduce a new charge of at least $15 as a result of the government’s freeze on Medicare rebates.
Demand for GP bulk billing services in the federal electorate of Petrie has increased from 65 per cent in 2003 to 84.7 per cent in 2016.
Federal LNP MP for Petrie Luke Howarth said the rate was “pretty high, considering the Queensland average is about 77 per cent”.
He said the Federal Government would not be changing the Medicare rebate payable to patients.
“It is only with sensible expenditure we will be able to afford … treatments of the future,” Mr Howarth said.
But federal Labor MP for Lilley Wayne Swan said the importance of affordable, quality health care was one of the issues most commonly raised with him by the community.
“I fear the four-year freeze will impact all practices across the community,” he said.
“This will hurt modest wage earners, low-income retirees and pensioners the most.”
Mr Swan said about 74 per cent of GP consultations were bulk billed in his electorate.
“There are roughly 15 practices that advertise as 100 per cent bulk-billing practices, but many more will bulk bill particular patients,” he said.
Labor has vowed to reverse the Turnbull Government’s Medicare rebate freeze to halt an expected $15 rise per doctor visit and safeguard existing bulk-billing.