Australia spent $16 billion on GP-related health care in 2012-13. Given that our public health system means each of us is paying for health care through our taxes, what should we expect from doctors?
As well as being responsible for a large share of total costs, people who visit the GP more often are more likely to live in the most disadvantaged areas, and to report being in poor health.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has emerged from the recent brouhaha over the Abbott government’s proposed Medicare reforms as both a winner in the protection of doctors’ incomes and an apparent…
Over the past few years there has been a push towards getting patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes to take on more responsibility for their conditions. The traditional wisdom is that GP…
The Abbott government has announced a A$20 billion medical research “future fund”, to help discover what Treasurer Joe Hockey calls the “cures of the future”, paid for with money generated as a result…
Across hospitals and doctor’s surgeries every day, patients have to make difficult choices. But for most of us the freedom to decide what happens to our bodies is taken for granted – doctors recommend…
The call for more funding for general practice by Clare Gerada, the outgoing chair of the Royal College of GPs, attracted much attention. But within the profession, an interview in which she gave cautious…
“The bulk-billing rates are at historic highs now. Visits to GPs are 82% bulk-billed. When Tony Abbott was minister it was 67%.” Health minister Tanya Plibersek, National Press Club Health Debate, 27 August…
It’s a traditional part of the theatre of health policy for trade unionists to give secretaries of state for health a hard time. The latest example of this was the vote of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt…
A new study shows an association between less access to GPs and high rates of attendance in nearby accident and emergency (A&E) units. It’s an interesting piece of work but risks inflaming an already…
Our increasing use of hospital services is out of control and unsustainable and is contributing to the current crisis in accident and emergency (A&E). But the problem isn’t new and 30 years of NHS…
The NSW Supreme Court decision to overturn damages awarded to an obese man whose doctor failed to refer him for specialist care to help him lose weight has been widely welcomed by medical and legal experts…
OVER-DIAGNOSIS EPIDEMIC - We kick off the second week of this series with Jenny Doust looking at some drivers of over-diagnosis in general practice. It’s easy to dismiss general practice as being about…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
Director, SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care and Professor and Head of the Department of General Practice, Monash University