Bulk-billing is “on life support” in rural and regional Tasmania due to an “atrocious” lack of federal funding for general practice, the state’s peak doctors’ body says.

It comes after an upper house committee released its final report into rural health services, following an extensive inquiry.

The committee, chaired by independent Murchison MLC Ruth Forrest, found that workforce shortages, recruitment challenges and “inflexible” funding arrangements were reducing the quality of health care in Tasmania, particularly in general practice.

Australian Medical Association Tasmania president Dr John Saul said rebates under the Medicare Benefits Scheme had been indexed by just 1.6 per cent from July 1, meaning GPs would only receive an additional 65 cents for a standard consult and patients faced higher out-of-pocket costs.

The consumer price index, meanwhile, stands at 7.3 per cent.

“The current Medicare rebate and funding from the federal government is atrocious,” Dr Saul told the Mercury.

“[Bulk-billing is] on life support at the moment, with a lot of practices just taking the cut in income but struggling to recruit as a result of it.”

“The … rebate from Canberra just doesn’t cover our costs, and especially not for after hours work.

“It’s just so frustrating from a general practice point-of-view.”

Dr Saul said there were at least 60 advertised GP vacancies across the state.

“We feel that figure, based on our GP numbers per capita, is closer to 150,” he said.

Ms Forrest said if action wasn’t taken to address the problem, health outcomes would likely get worse in rural and regional areas.

“The end result is more pressure on our acute health services and more money gets sucked into that black hole,” she said.

“We’ve got to keep people as well as we can. Early intervention cannot happen if you don’t have access to health care in the community.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler acknowledged that it had “never been harder or more expensive for Tasmanians to see a doctor than it is now”.

He blamed the previous Coalition government for “nine long years of cuts and neglect of Medicare”.

Mr Butler noted that the Albanese government had established a $750m fund to strengthen Medicare and had budgeted $220m for doctors to invest in general practices.

Premier and Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff would not commit to adopting and implementing all the committee’s recommendations but said the state government would fully consider the report.

He said a number of existing government commitments “directly address several recommendations made by the Legislative Council committee”.

The Mercury, Monday 21 November 2022