GENERAL practitioners in the Macarthur region are under-used and over-worked, Macarthur's Labor and Liberal candidates heard at an exclusive health discussion last week.
Nick Bleasdale (Labor) and Russell Matheson (Liberal) attended the Doctors 4Health forum at the Campbelltown Catholic Club, hosted by the Australian Medical Association.
Along with the Advertiser, the candidates heard the problems local doctors faced first-hand - many of which concerned a lack of aged-care support and not enough teamwork between hospitals and GPs.
Macarthur Division of General Practice chairman Matthew Gray told the small group at the forum the existing network was flawed.
Dr Gray said GPs could help to reduce pressure on hospitals with the right infrastructure, including the addition of nurses and allied health professionals.
This would mean diagnostic testing and diabetes control could be done within a GP clinic. ``We could actually use GPs more effectively if we had the proper structures and infrastructure systems in place, with the view to take pressure off the hospital system,'' he said.
``It would decrease the number of avoidable hospital admissions.
``Hospitals are at times required to see patients that could be dealt with in a general practice setting.''
Dr Gray said there was tremendous strain on local GPs who were dealing with an ageing population and a lower ratio of doctors to patients than in other Sydney regions.
``We have limited numbers, compared to our inner city cousins,'' he said.
``Because there's that pressure on the number of providers it's even more crucial for the area to have the right support for that.
``We know from all the evidence that having a general practice is very central to good health outcomes from a country.
``It's also something that people value to have a trusted relationship with their GP.''
Dr Gray said the government should reinvest in existing networks, rather than go ahead with their plans for GP Super Clinics.
``A far better way would be to invest in existing general practice, improve their facilities, moving them to being comprehensive clinics, rather than just setting up new, independent super clinics,'' he said.
``That's far more cost-effective to the taxpayer.
``A small percentage of areas could benefit from a super clinic if it was meeting a gap in service provision.''
After the forum Mr Bleasdale said he would ``get down to Canberra and argue, lobby, fight for these services''.
``There are things I had no idea about,'' he said.
``When we hear it from them first-hand it brings it home.
``I believe the people who work in the system should have a say in how it's actually run, fewer bureaucrats.''
Mr Matheson said he, too, would ``be taking these issues forward to our policy-makers''.
``Focus groups like this are very engaging,'' he said. ``Our current GP services, they're already there. GP super clinics might break that down, which is a worry. To me, it would be more cost-effective to reinvest.''
Other issues raised at the forum concerned aged care, staff shortages and a lack of decision-making power in hospitals.
AMA federal president Andrew Pesce pushed the need for the federal government to bear all health funding, as proposed under Labor's current reform plans.
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