MOST GPs are committed to delivering preventive health in their day-to-day clinical practice, despite half believing they will never be adequately rewarded for preventive health checks, a Medical Observer survey has revealed.
The poll of close to 500 GPs found that although two-thirds of respondents believed preventive health was a large part of their daily work, 47% believed it was unlikely they would ever be adequately rewarded for it.
Melbourne GP Dr Tony Marshal said that until MBS rebates for longer consultations were increased, doctors would continue to be poorly remunerated for preventive health checks.
“Medicare don’t pay adequately for long consultations and they require so much paperwork that half of the time that could be spent on preventive health advice is spent on documenting,” Dr Marshal said.
AMA vice-president Dr Steve Hambleton said another challenge GPs faced was convincing patients to
