The AMA is calling for expansion of the workforce incentive program to better utilise nurse care in general practice.
The AMA’s latest position statement on enhancing the role of practice nurse in GP-led team-based care has detailed where the advocacy body looks to reform collaborative care.
Per the AMA, current funding and policy models are inhibiting GP clinics from fully utilising their capacity.
“Governments regularly talk about multidisciplinary care, workforce shortages and hospital congestion, but policy settings do not match the rhetoric,” AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said.
“Medicare does not properly support the greater use of nurses in practices, and inadequate Workforce Incentive Program funding makes it difficult for some practices to employ and retain nurses.
“This means care that could be happening in GP clinics is delayed and patients are ending up in hospitals.”
The updated position statement comes in the wake of the AMA’s pre-budget calling for the strengthening and expansion of the Workforce Incentive Program.
The said modernisation would look to enable practice nurses to better support patient care via development of specific MBS items for GP-supervised nurse care and expansion of nurse care time contributing to a time-tiered GP attendance item.
“The RACGP supports this reform to have practice nurses working for full scope within GP led teams,” RACGP vice president Dr Ramya Raman told The Medical Republic.
“Rather than having multiple avenues where patients can access care, if we are keeping it within general practice and having GP led teams, it’s actually really convenient for patients, and it improves access.
“Support for that would actually help practices employ and retain nurses in our rural and remote areas.”
With access to vaccination being a priority this budget season, health bodies have backed this potential reform as an effective tool to improve practice efficiency.
“This is how you reduce fragmentation,” Dr Raman told TMR.
“Bring nurses into general practice, coordinated care, strengthen continuity, and then keep patients out of hospital.
“The workforce incentive programme is a lever that turns the rhetoric into workforce, and uncapping and indexing the WIP can enable hiring retention.”
The Australian College of Nursing told TMR that it has concerns with the reform push, arguing that care effectiveness should not be judged on practitioner availability.
“Unlocking more care by nurses requires a recognition that general practice refers to holistic and comprehensive primary care, and encompasses practices that are not necessarily led by medical practitioners,” an ACN spokesperson told TMR.
“At all times, primary care must be person-centred, rather than based on practitioner availability.
“Anchoring primary care to a GP-led model does not reflect the contemporary needs of communities, particularly in regional and underserved areas.”
In response to the AMA submission, the ACN has reiterated its call for a separate funding model to better support nurses in multidisciplinary care.
“The Australian College of Nursing has called for the establishment of a Baseline Practice Payment, in line with the recommendations of the Federal Government’s Expert Advisory Panel report, ‘Review of General Practice Incentives’,” the ACN spokesperson told TMR.
“This would be a new blended payment architecture that would enable primary care practices to use funds flexibly to provide multidisciplinary care to the populations they serve.
“ACN agrees that healthcare funding reform is urgent given workforce realities, rising chronic disease, and an ageing population.
“If funding and workforce structures are not aligned with the increasingly complex healthcare needs of Australians, pressure on the acute care sector and healthcare budgets will only continue to escalate.”
