Posted Thursday, 4 February
GP house calls for elderly patients in Canberra
Elderly Canberrans will have access to GP house calls from 1 July as part of an Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government proposal to improve healthcare access.
Acting Health Minister, Jon Stanhope, is seeking tenders for the new GP Aged Day Service.
He said the program would give elderly residents of aged care facilities or housebound residents access to doctors during business hours.
"Older housebound Canberrans and those living in our local residential aged care facilities can't always get to a GP for a range of reasons such as reduced mobility,'' Mr Stanhope said.
"In these circumstances, the new service will provide GPs who will be available to make house calls. The GP shortage here in the ACT also makes it difficult for many doctors to make home visits quickly.''
ACT Australian Medical Association president, Paul Jones, welcomed the move.
"This was originally discussed in the GP working group ... a think-tank of AMA, the academic division, the Division of General Practice and several others and then it was one of the things brought up during the GP Task Force that the Minister had,'' Dr Jones said.
He said the service would not improve the region's GP shortage but rather aimed to keep retiring GPs working longer. More than 70 extra doctors are needed to bring the region in line with the national average.
"We suspect this is something that is going to be ideal for people that are starting to wind back because they are nearing retirement age but don't want to give up altogether. And it may also suit some of the younger generation GPs who often want to work part time.''
Dr Jones said the locum service would give elderly patients more rapid access to medical care.
"A person might not necessarily need to be taken instantly to the hospital, but they might need care and their GP might not get there until 7pm that night or 9am the next morning ... we hope this [service] will do a couple of things.
"Provide the patients with more immediate and timely care and the other thing is that we hope the GPs will continue to look after people in residential aged care.''
