Rudd proposes that GP’s take on care of diabetics

By Candy Lashkari

In a bid to ease the strain caused by diabetes on the hospitals, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has proposed that GP’s take on care of diabetics. For every diabetes patient that a GP handles, the government will pay the doctor $1200 a year to cover day-to-day costs. Each GP will receive up to $10,800 annually based on performance.

“This means a single practice will be responsible for ensuring that voluntarily enrolled patients are able to access services from a wide range of health professionals” said Prime Minister Rudd. “In 2007-08, around 237,000 hospital admissions were related to complications from diabetes that could have been avoided through better management. This is 32 per cent of all avoidable hospital admissions.''

This move is likely to reduce the 237,000 annual diabetic admissions in hospitals. That would equal one third of the current annual hospital admissions which are avoidable and would ease the pressure of health care on hospitals. However the announcement is meeting with mixed reactions.

Australian Medical Association, President Andrew Pesce, said “The government's proposed voluntary enrolment plan for people with diabetes is policy on the run that will make it more difficult for patients to access vital GP services. It is clear that linking this announcement to relieving pressure on hospitals is designed to have more of a positive effect on the premiers than on people with diabetes.”

Greg Johnson the acting chief executive of Diabetes Australia has welcomes the initiate of the federal government. As 275 people a day develop diabetes it is important to help them better manage the disease. “It can be enormously difficult if [patients] have to navigate a system by themselves” said Greg Johnson.

However it was not clarified by a government spokesperson if the new diabetes funding incentive is dependent on the states adopting Mr. Rudd’s new funding and operational model for hospitals. In the run up to the COAG the federal government may unveil more surprises to the health care plan to give added incentives to the states to sign up.

In response John Brumby, the Victorian premier had this to say “There's lots more discussion that's gonna be needed to make progress on this issue. But we had good discussions yesterday. I think they were harder and tougher - that's an honest assessment - today”

John Brumby of Victoria and Colin Barnett of Western Australia are going to be the most difficult of all the state Premiers for the Prime Minister to convince. For Mr Brumby the immediate increase of annual funding by $1.2 billion and more funds for the emergency department is a priority. Tony Abbot is supporting the government’s health plan in principle, but what will eventually transpire is anybody’s guess.