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The Coalition Government’s announcement to extend the Medicare freeze until 2020 was a devastating blow to medical practice in Australia, particularly general practice. If maintained, the freeze threatens to cripple thousands of medical practices and force all Australians to pay more for their healthcare.

For many GPs, the announcement was a tipping point. With the freeze potentially stretching out for seven years, many have no choice but to pass on the increased costs of running their practices to patients.

For GPs looking at ways to make their practices more sustainable, AMA (NSW) has launched Future Practice – a platform for medical practitioners who are interested in providing quality care in the midst of the Medicare freeze.

In conjunction with the campaign, AMA (NSW) launched its Future Practice website (www.futurepractice.com.au) which covers all aspects of creating a quality, patient-centred, economically viable practice, offering a wealth of resources, including case studies, videos, and a community for GPs to share ideas.

The Future Practice website also offers general practitioners a free health check, a detailed benchmarking exercise and a fee for service pricing guide.

AMA (NSW)’s first-ever Future Practice workshop was one of the best attended events we have held this year – proof that many GPs are looking for ideas on how to build more innovative, sustainable practices

The workshop featured a presentation from Cathy Baynie, NSW/ACT State President of the Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM). Ms Baynie has had an extensive career as a practice manager and has joined AMA (NSW) as a consultant to answer any questions AMA members may have about innovating their practice.

Ms Baynie’s presentation looked at the current financial challenges for general practice, focusing on the Medicare freeze, as well as the Practice Incentive Program, which is not indexed and is now being “streamlined”, as well as the pending introduction of Healthcare Home and voluntary registration model.

Ms Baynie emphasised to GPs that the decision to make any change, whether it be to transition from bulk billing, increase fees, or introduce new services, is challenging. She cautioned attendees that before any such changes can be implemented it is imperative practice systems are in place; this includes management systems, IT systems, human resource systems, appointment and recall systems.

Her presentation also stressed the importance of benchmarking and the development of KPIs and targets.

According to Ms Baynie, practices need to focus on quality care and service delivery in order to “sell” any changes. They also need to be transparent in all

their dealings with patients surrounding any costs, and lastly, GPs need to educate patients as to what Medicare really is – emphasising that Medicare is their insurance and that patients need to fight for higher rebates.

Her advice to all practices looking to make a change is, “what will work for one practice may not work for another, so it is important to assess demographic needs and be innovative.”

Feedback from the night revealed that some doctors felt that their practice managers were not in a position to implement and manage the practice to a level that was required and were looking for education and resources to assist with these processes.

Other concerns that surfaced during the event were the difficulty of maintaining high quality care standards and delivery, whilst sustaining their businesses. Managing chronic disease on a limited budget was also highlighted at the forum.

AMA (NSW) will be holding several more Future Practice events in the coming months. Please visit amansw.com.au or futurepractice.com.au for updates. For members unable to attend the workshops, they will also be available as webinars.  dr.