Health Minister Mark Butler with Member for Bean David Smith. Photo: David Smith Facebook.
The Federal Government wants Canberra to have three more bulk-billing GP practices, and it is throwing $10.5 million on the table to make it happen.
It has called for expressions of interest to find organisations wanting to set up new bulk-billed clinics across the ACT.
The call will remain open until 8 October, with suitable healthcare organisations encouraged to express their interest through the Capital Health Network’s tender and grants website.
The EOI will be followed by a formal application and tender process.
In announcing the initiative, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler noted that Canberra has “longstanding issues” with GP availability, and that three new GP clinics would “address this discrepancy”.
Finance Minister and ACT Senator Katy Gallagher said the $10.5 million would be seed funding for successful applicants.
The non-ongoing, one-off funding is designed to help cover establishment costs, which will be determined through the formal tender process.
“We put on the table $10.5 million and we’re saying to the market, we’d like three bulk-billing clinics with additional GPs coming to operate in the ACT,” Senator Gallagher said.
“We have seen this operate, or this incentive operate, in other places around Australia, and it works. We know that there are businesses that are able to provide these clinics.
“We’re testing over the next month what the appetite is from those providers, including existing providers, to operate these clinics.”
The three new bulk-billing GP practices are part of Labor’s healthcare plan for the ACT under a $24.3 million package.
The government wants the practices to be spread across the ACT and be 100 per cent bulk-billed.
The clinics will work alongside a new bulk-billed and GP-led Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Woden, adding to the current network of Urgent Care Clinics in Gungahlin, Dickson, Belconnen, Weston Creek and Tuggeranong.
Member for Bean David Smith, who has been working towards the opening of the Urgent Care Clinic in Woden, said he hears constantly from families in Canberra’s south about how hard it is to find a GP who bulk bills.
“These new clinics, alongside our Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Woden, are about addressing that gap,” Mr Smith said.
This is about fairness, making sure every family in every part of Canberra has access to bulk-billing GPs and affordable healthcare.”
Senator Gallagher said the initiative works in conjunction with the government’s commitment to tripling the bulk-billing rate.
“We’re not only providing the seed funding, we’re also for bulk-billing clinics. There’s an incentive payment for clinics that bulk bill 100 per cent, and on top of that, there’s the tripling of the bulk-billing rate, which comes in in November,” she said.
“So there is a range of our measures at play here which would support this type of model coming to the ACT and being viable.”
Ministers said they were not going to be too prescriptive to applicants, and that expressions of interest could be for completely new clinics or to help existing clinics become bulk billing practices.
“We don’t want our hard-working GPs to be just shouldering an additional load, and you’ve got to see this in conjunction with the work we’re doing with the Medicare Medicare Urgent Care Clinic which will open in Woden soon, and it’ll work alongside all the nurse-led Urgent Care Clinic, or Walk-in Centres, that we have across the ACT,” Senator Gallagher said.
“Bulk billing has been a constant issue for the ACT Government and for the Commonwealth, and most importantly, for the citizens of Canberra, who at times when they need to visit a doctor, want some choice … This is about making it easier and more affordable for Canberra families to see a doctor when they need to. Bulk billing is central to Medicare and central to Labor’s commitment to making healthcare more accessible.”
The Australian Medical Association and the ACT Council of Social Service have both suggested the move is a step in the right direction, but more work and investment – and different approaches – will still be needed to attract more bulk-billing GPs.
