Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year
On behalf of the Northern Rivers General Practice Network, the editorial team at GP Speak extends seasonal greetings to readers of our magazine and our regularly updated website.
In the past year we have presented a diversity of clinical articles and news stories relating to general practice, the broader health care debate in Australia, research initiatives, and stories about healthy lifestyle practices and recreational activities such as travel and books.
We greatly appreciate the support of our many contributors, as well as the health facility operators and other service providers, as well as universities, that have helped make GP Speak possible via their advertising and sponsorships.
We encourage other relevant organisations to consider taking up a commercial involvement with GP Speak in the year ahead.
We are mindful that a number of readers may be required to be on duty, or on call, during the holiday period, and their efforts will again be greatly valued by the broader community.
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New CEO and office for Rural Docs
With new CEO Richard Colbran on board, the NSW Rural Doctors Network has opened a Newcastle office focused on becoming a hub for rural health practitioners and organisations across NSW.
The official opening was performed Federal Assistant Minister for Rural Health, Dr David Gillespie, who said the NSW RDN had been exemplary in advocating for rural health workers and rural communities for over 20 years, with many of their initiatives providing models for collaborative reform.
“NSW RDN has long been a key facilitator with other organisations to fill workforce gaps, and is a real model for a cohesive approach to health services and innovation to expand rural and remote access to healthcare,” Dr Gillespie said.
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Govt’s bulk billing figures ‘political spin’ - RACGP
Only two-thirds of GP patients bulk billed, Dept tells Senate
Contrary to the Federal Government’s insistence that the bulk billing rate stands at 83.7% the figure is actually 64.7%, the Department of Health told senators at an Estimates session in the final week of Parliament for 2016.
This contradicts the Turnbull government’s claim that bulk-billing is at a record high despite the ongoing rebate freeze, the Royal Australian College of GPs says.
More than a third of Australians have paid out of pocket expenses to see their GP in the last year, according to RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel: “Bulk billing numbers have been subject to political spin for too long. What matters to our patients is whether or not they can afford a co-payment for the clinical care of themselves and their families.”
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Read more: Govt’s bulk billing figures ‘political spin’ - RACGP
Byron Bay ‘wins’ Australia’s riskiest drinking award
As young people congregate in Byron Bay for ‘schoolies’, new research shows that a greater percentage of the town’s permanent 15years+ population consumes alcohol at risky levels than any other place in Australia.
Moreover, the east coast location regarded as a mecca for healthy practices has been found to have more adult smokers than the national average, and at 59.7% a level of overweight and obesity close to the alarming national average of 62.8%.
More concerning is that the rates of overweight and obese people in Casino (69.4%), and Ballina and Lismore (both 65.2%) were found to be even higher.
The statistics are among those released this week in the Australian Health Policy Collaboration’s Australia’s Health Tracker .
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Read more: Byron Bay ‘wins’ Australia’s riskiest drinking award
Issues Facing Australian GPs - Revalidation
Revalidation is the process of ensuring that doctors are fit to practice medicine. The Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority (AHPRA) is engaged in the process of forcing revalidation upon the Australian medical community.
If you have followed the process on the AHPRA website (which you may not have because it was hard to find), you will note the issue has not been whether revalidation should occur but rather in what form. The process to date is summarised at GPA Current Issues. The process has been an open and transparent one but GPs may have difficulty in recalling the notification document sent out by AHPRA. However, there has been little reaction of any kind from the medical community. AHPRA has called for submissions to comment on the proposed revalidation scheme.
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- Written by: Dr John Goswell, General Practitioners of Australia
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