GPs are not happy with residential aged care work. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) survey of more than 600 GPs found that doctors are making more visits to aged care facilities and spending more time with patients than they were two years ago. Over 35% plan to not take on new patients, cut back or end nursing home visits. The number of GPs making visits has already dropped 14% since 2015.
The GPs also rated having enough registered and enrolled nurses available as their top priority, with two-thirds (66%) labelling this urgent or extremely urgent.
“The current aged care workforce does not have the capability, capacity, and connectedness to adequately meet the needs of older people,” AMA President Dr Tony Bartone said.
“Many doctors reported that there is sometimes no nurse available for doctors to carry out a clinical handover, and no nurse available to administer medicines after-hours.”
Over four in five doctors also cited increasing, unpaid non-contact time as the reason they had cut back on visits – a situation that will likely worsen when the GP Aged Care Access Incentive (ACAI) payment runs out in April 2019.
Less than 10% of respondents said that the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) rebate was enough to compensate for time spent locating the patient, filling in scripts and paperwork, talking to relatives, renewing scripts over the telephone, and telephone calls to staff while in their surgery.
The survey also found almost half (47.11%) of visits were made by doctors aged 61 years and older – signaling more potential for a workforce crisis as more doctors retire.
It’s worth noting that only 608 of the 5,599 AMA members contacted for the survey responded so it may be a skewed sample – but still cause for concern if the numbers do play out as predicted.
You can download the full report HERE.
