Geir O ’ Rourke THE Federal Government has dumped its plan to introduce Medicare rebates to fund GP patient registration because it has already spent the money , the AMA claims .

Voluntary patient enrolment has been in the works for more than a decade .

Under the MyGP scheme , a government pledge in the 2019 / 20 federal budget , GPs were going to be offered up to $ 156 annually for each patient they signed up .

But the $ 450 million allocated for rebates was no longer available , said AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid .

He said the message was conveyed at a meeting with Minister for Health Greg Hunt in late February .

‘ We are not going to be implementing this reform ; there ’ s no more money for health .’

The scheme was expected to begin as early as July this year , with access to most MBS telehealth and care plan items contingent on the patient being registered with the practice from July next year .

In theory , it is still possible for the government to demand some form of registration for patients to access both telehealth and care plan Medicare rebates .

But the AMA said last month that the government funding for enrolment was gone .

“ As we have come closer to the election , what we ’ re hearing from government is , ‘ No , we are not going to be implementing this reform ; there ’ s no more money for health ,’” Dr Khorshid said .

“ And even the modest amount of money already in the budget , which is about $ 440 million … even that is a step too far for the government at the minute .”

Mr Hunt said it was “ incorrect ” to claim voluntary registration had been ditched —

refused to be drawn on whether rebates will be available for GPs who sign up patients .

“ The heart of voluntary patient enrolment was the creation of telehealth , which has already been introduced and made permanent , delivering nearly 100 million services to approximately 17 million patients ,” he said .

Mr Hunt also defended the government ’ s record , saying it had spent an additional $ 800 million on primary healthcare over the past two years , including “ investing in foundational elements to support voluntary patient

Dr Khorshid said the AMA remained broadly supportive of patient enrolment but that this would be impossible if no funding was attached .

“ And that means that the plan will not get the support of GPs .

“ You cannot put in a big reform without money behind it .”

He added that , while federal health spending had increased significantly during the past two years , this reflected temporary expenditure to combat COVID-19 and not

Minister for Health Greg Hunt .

FAIRFAX

Rachel Worsley THE RACGP has quadrupled its fellowship fees for doctors with overseas specialist GP qualifications after losing Federal Government funding .

The one-off fee will increase , from $ 2000 to $ 8000 , from 1 April . It affects doctors with “ substantially comparable ” qualifications from the UK , Ireland , Canada and New Zealand , as well as those considered “ partially comparable ” from countries like the US and Spain .

It comes after the college ditched automatic fellowship for these specialist IMGs in 2019 , with eligible doctors instead entering its Practice Experience Program Specialist Stream .

About 300 doctors a year go through the program . They are required to undertake at least six months of supervised practice — usually in a rural area — using a provider number granted through the college .

They complete training modules and a workplace-based assessment , with their supervisors reporting on their performance and college assessors having to judge whether they are “ satisfactory ” before being awarded fellowship .

RACGP president Dr Karen Price stressed that the fees covered medical educator meetings and support , as well as a workplace-based assessments , access to a college portal and learning units , provider number authorisation and administration , and general program administration .

Federal Government grant funding for the program was ending in July , she said .

although , on the question of funding , he

enrolment ”.

“ true reform ” for the health system .

Ambulance-certified therapy dog and handler in addition to usual care .

Prior to the visit , a research assistant asked about pain , anxiety , depres-

the intervention group , pain scores declined by a mean of 0.9 points on a 10-point scale . Their anxiety scores also dropped by 1.13 points on average , and

Reuters Health PAIN and anxiety levels can be reduced

patients , those attending ED who reported being in pain were randomly

sion and wellbeing using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System .

The questions were repeated imme-

depression scores fell by 0.72 points , while wellbeing improved by 0.87 .

The control group of 101 patients ,

in ED patients with a simple 10-minute

allocated to the therapy-dog or the con-

diately after the dog ’ s visit and again 20

who were interviewed twice 30 min-

visit from a therapy-dog team , a trial suggests .

In a Canadian study involving 198

trol group . The intervention arm received a 10-minute visit with a St John

minutes later . The study , published in PLOS One , found that , among the 97 patients in

utes apart , showed no statistically significant changes . ​​ PLOS One 2022 ; 9 Mar .

Ace .