Medicare rebates for nurses and other health professionals will be put on the table as the Government launches its National Primary Health Care Strategy.
The mere floating of the option is expected to spark a vicious turf war between the Government and doctors, who remain the gate keepers of primary health care across Australia.
But federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon will tell the Australian General Practice Network forum in Sydney today that a radical rethink of the health system is needed if Australia is to meet the needs of its ageing population.
Australians are living with manageable conditions such as heart disease, arthritis and diabetes in a system designed for acute care, Ms Roxon is expected to say.
Nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and dieticians were often not fully acknowledged in the primary health debate, yet had a vital role to play.
“We need to have a primary health care system that enables people to see the right health professional for their needs, in an appropriate place at the right time,” she says in her speech.
“That may mean rethinking who the right health professional is in certain situations.”
The Health Minister will note Medicare expenditure in remote and poorer communities is lower than in affluent suburbs of big cities.
Yet disease is often more prevalent in poorer communities and treatment less effective.
“How can we address that balance?” she says.
“GP Super Clinics, we believe, are part of the answer, but we know more will need to be done as well.”
Ms Roxon says she is aware the possibility of a new approach will spark “robust debate”.
“Too often in the past governments have been reluctant to even enter into this debate, scared off by turf wars.”
Ms Roxon says she was shocked when she stepped into her portfolio and found no overall primary care strategy.
She acknowledges some changes to primary care in recent years.
“But they have been piecemeal, with no long-range view of what we need primary care to achieve.
“Simply put, tinkering at the edges has let the system grow with no logic behind it, no strategy of how to deliver the best care for families, or how to best use the health workforce we have.”
Mr Roxon is expected to stress no changes will be implemented until all views have been canvassed in the development of the primary health strategy.
The strategy will be developed by an External Reference Group, which will work closely with the Government as well as states and territories and health provider organisations.
Nurses have already gone on the offensive this week, calling for an overhaul of Medicare to reduce the dominance of fee-charging doctors.
The Australian Nursing Federation believes there is a greater role for nurses in diagnosis and prescribing.
But the powerful Australian Medical Association is expected to categorically oppose any move to dilute the role of doctors as primary health carers.
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