Patients with UTIs, back pain or respiratory illness were advised to seek out an urgent care clinic rather than a GP in a UCC promotional video produced by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing several years ago.
An SBS news article intended to help patients decide which level of care to seek this winter flu season has inadvertently become a flash point, as GPs’ frustration with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing grows.
The article, which was published on Thursday last week, originally included an infographic with green, orange, and red tiles.
The green tile included conditions that patients could consider “routine care (typically GP)”, such as vaccinations and prescriptions, mental health advice, and referrals for tests, scans, or specialist care.
The red tile was for “emergency care (hospital emergency department)” and included chest pain or tightness, ongoing fever in infants, seizures, and severe burns.
Most of the discussion, however, has focussed on the orange tile, which listed conditions like minor fractures, sprains, minor cuts, minor infections, respiratory illness, sports injuries, insect bites, neck or back pain, gastroenteritis, urinary tract infection, minor eye or ear problems, and mild burns as being worthy of “urgent care (like a hospital or clinic)”.
The graphic itself was created by SBS, which credited the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
It appeared that the original source of the information was a December 2023 video advertisement for Medicare urgent care clinics, available on the department’s website.
Victorian GP Dr Cameron Loy brought the story to wider attention on LinkedIn, noting that “EVERYTHING in the orange box” was part of his daily practice.
“The thing that I found so disappointing about that [infographic] and the current government policy dialogue on medicine is that it focuses on these transaction points: a script, a care plan,” Dr Loy told The Medical Republic.
“They’re not actually seeing that medicine is actually a professional service, and what we are paying for is a professional opinion.
“I don’t go to a surgeon for the operation, because you can train [anybody] up to do an operative procedure.
“I go to a surgeon, a skilled surgeon, because I want their opinion on what the best treatment is for me.”
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Doctors were quick to post their own reactions.
“This is wild! And incredibly offensive to all the incredible talented and hard working, highly skilled GPs who are – and should be – the absolute foundation of our healthcare system,” paediatric rheumatologist Professor Jane Munro wrote in one comment.
“I’m open to looking at all sorts of solutions but this… is not the answer.”
Several other commenters pointed out that GPs were, in fact, the ones who staffed urgent care clinics.
“The problem is that these are publicity campaigns dreamed up by bureaucrats who have no idea about clinical care let alone GP,” WA GP Dr Simon Torvaldsen wrote.
“It would actually be fairly accurate if they had just said in the orange box, ‘GP or urgent care clinic’.
“In the real world the problem is perceived lack of urgent access to GPs (which in many regions has a bit of truth). But stuff like this is actually educating people to NOT go to their GP for this care but [to present] instead to much more expensive taxpayer funded services.”
Former RACGP president Professor Karen Price kept her commentary characteristically short: “disgraceful ignorance”.
It has now been reposted several times over by prominent GPs including RACGP presidential candidates Dr Anita Muñoz and Dr Ramya Raman and AMA president hopefuls Dr Anchita Karmakar and Dr Michael Bonning.
Dr Raman said seeing messaging which normalised the idea that general practice was just for routine care made her “genuinely infuriated”, while Dr Muñoz called for whomever approved the original message to “be mandated to spend a day in general practice”.
In her post, Dr Karmakar said she had drafted a letter of concern addressed to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing formally requesting a correction and proposing that public-facing clinical guidance “be subject to the same accuracy standards the rest of us are held to”.
She has posted a draft online for those who may wish to co-sign.
