Dr Pesce said the Government strategy must be to strengthen the GP-led model of primary care services by:
- Increasing GP training numbers;
- Increasing support for GP practice nurses who already work in collaboration with doctors;
- Allowing existing practices to access funding to support new infrastructure that they can use to deliver a wider range of multidisciplinary services as well as teach and train the next generation of GPs;
- Introducing properly funded and streamlined arrangements that allow GPs to refer patients to allied health professionals as part of a team-based approach to the management of chronic and complex disease;
- Providing better support for GPs to access the right technologies in the care of their patients such as MRI and point of care testing; and
- Recognising the role that GPs play in delivering preventive health care.
Source-AMA
SRM