GP Super Clinics Audit
- Details
- Category: Programs
- Published on Saturday, 27 October 2012 22:29
- Written by David Guest
- Hits: 1188
"The AMA had a preliminary meeting this week with staff from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to provide input to the ANAO’s audit of the Government’s GP Super Clinics program.
According to the ANAO, the audit objective is to ‘assess the effectiveness of the Department of Health and Ageing’s (DoHA) administration of the GP Super Clinics program to support improved community access to integrated GP and primary health care services’. The AMA highlighted many issues with the program, including the location of clinics, the impact on local practices, and the problems that a number of clinics have encountered in recruiting GPs. So far, the community has seen little return on the Government’s $650m investment in this area.
The AMA is not opposed to GP Super Clinics being established in areas where there is a clear need for them, and where they will not unfairly compete with existing general practices.
The AMA is of the view that, if the ANAO finds the program to be failing, the Government should redirect the budget for the GP Super Clinic program into GP infrastructure grants for existing practices that have a track record in the community of delivering good health services and could do better with small infrastructure grants to expand services to patients."
It might even be better to target those practices that have a plan for integrating other health services into their routine car
