Peter Breadon, Danielle Romanes, Lachlan Fox, Jonathon Bolton, and Lauren Richardson from think tank: The Grattan Institute, recently analysed Australia’s health system and found Medicare is broken to meet the needs of doctors and patients in the 21st century. They suggest a radical makeover of Australia’s public healthcare system to rectify the problem with general medicine and bring it up to date with the rising number of chronic disease cases in the nation.
According to the report, general practitioners are more difficult to reach, there are more patients overall, and presentations are getting more acute and complicated. GPs should spend more time with patients rather than moving in the opposite direction and cutting back on consultations, as is being advocated.
The institute cites a lack of funding and a serious skills shortage where doctors are not drawn to a career as a GP.
Proposed Model (Figure 6.3 below, p68 from the report)
The Grattan institute’s model raises the following questions;
1. Why is the individual and their health needs not at the centre of the model, instead it is at the bottom?
2. Why is the government deciding what is best for health and not doctors and patients.
3. GPs are leaving in droves because medicine has become heavily regulated, and they are unable to treat their patients with the individual care they deserve.
Read the full report here