ABBOTT GOVERNMENT MUST BACK NURSES IN GENERAL PRACTICE

Changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule that prevent nurses’ time being claimed for health assessments must be remedied.  Labor calls on the government to do this as a matter of urgency.
 
Labor introduced four health assessment MBS items in 2010 to assist people with an intellectual disability, people aged 45-49 years who are at risk of developing chronic disease, permanent residents of residential aged care facilities, people aged 75 and older, plus a range of others.  The intention was always that nurses would play a role in supporting GPs to conduct these assessments, complementing their important work
 
Any failure to clarify this issue by the Government will be another blow in its coordinated and damaging attack on primary care and its long-term agenda of destroying Medicare.
 
The Australian Medical Association has warned these changes undermine team based primary health care arrangements.
 
There are already anecdotal reports of practices cancelling pre-arranged health checks because of these changes.
 
Labor calls on the Government to clarify the position and resolve this situation immediately.