Milanda Rout
VICTORIA’S Baillieu government will today begin public consultations on key parts of the federal health deal.
The government has been given a four-week extension for a submission on Medicare locals and their proposed boundaries.
New state Health Minister David Davis will chair a forum in Melbourne with key medical and community groups to flesh out their concerns about Medicare locals, which administer primary, GP and community healthcare.
It will be the first of five consultations across the state that will occur in the next month over the controversial plan.
The Coalition government caused a stir after it was elected in November, saying it would review the health deal and wanted to “expose the detail” and investigate the impact it would have on Victorian families.
Mr Davis said yesterday the consultations would help inform the submissions the government would make to federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon over the proposed medicare locals, a key administrative framework for the new health system.
Mr Davis said the federal government had been very “generous” in allowing an extra month to make submissions on Medicare locals.
The Victorian arm of the Australian Medical Association is one of the groups that will be attending the forum, and yesterday confirmed it had a list of questions.
“The commonwealth government announced the introduction of Medicare locals months ago but we still don’t know what they will do,” said AMA Victoria vice-president Stephen Parnis. “Until we know the structure and purpose of Medicare locals, its unhelpful to consider whether or not the boundaries are adequate.”
Dr Parnis said he hoped the Victorian government would make some progress with the federal government on the issue.
“There are so many unknowns with Medicare locals. Will they control funding, services or both? If they control funding and services, how would any conflicts of interest be managed?” he said. “We don’t need another layer of bureaucracy that duplicates services or makes it more difficult to see an after-hours GP.”
Source: www.theaustralian.com.au
