What's the pulse on the street
Have you ever watched a TV show called Doc Martin? It's based on the life of a fictitious doctor - Doctor Martin who's a GP. He basically cruises around Cornwall seeing all sorts of patients, including many home visits. Naturally he does lots of other things as well which makes the TV series a hit. The point being - home visits are the norm in the UK, and, every doctor who has worked in the NHS who I have met comes to Australia and is shocked at how few home visits occur here. My usual response when asked, "well, how do people who are home bound get help" is ".... umm, I don't know, they manage". But are they managing?
What's really happening in Australia is that often those unfortunate people who can't get to a medical clinic are being neglected. If you're really lucky, your GP will visit you at home, but this is uncommon. More commonly, you just "manage" or not. And, the irony is, through various Government packages you can get all sort of other care at home - cleaning, nursing etc, but you can't get a regular GP. Instead, you often rely on after hours medical locum services. The good old after hours locum becomes, for many, their regular GP. However, that after hours locum is limited in what they can do and follow up on, so it shouldn't be so.
The reasons why GPs don't do many home visits during the day in Australia is simple. If you look at the numbers GPs lose too much money compared to working in a clinic, when they drive around doing home visits during the day. The Medicare rebate for home visits is just not high enough to get more doctors involved. That's one reason - the main reason, I think. However, there are others, including some relative isolation and lack of back up when you take leave. Of course in the UK, where Doctor Martin merrily conducts his home visits, the structure of doctor remuneration is different (it has its pros and cons there), but ultimately, it's more favourable to doing home visits, so more are done.
At the end of the day, one thing is for sure though, the problem is getting bigger. Even fewer younger GPs are willing to do home visits, yet as there is a swelling elderly population, the need is rising. We can choose to turn a blind eye. However, there remain such well meaning citizens, battling out there in their homes, crying out for a caring regular GP, and Mobile GP aims to be part of that solution - by earnestly supporting you - the GP.
What's really happening in Australia is that often those unfortunate people who can't get to a medical clinic are being neglected. If you're really lucky, your GP will visit you at home, but this is uncommon. More commonly, you just "manage" or not. And, the irony is, through various Government packages you can get all sort of other care at home - cleaning, nursing etc, but you can't get a regular GP. Instead, you often rely on after hours medical locum services. The good old after hours locum becomes, for many, their regular GP. However, that after hours locum is limited in what they can do and follow up on, so it shouldn't be so.
The reasons why GPs don't do many home visits during the day in Australia is simple. If you look at the numbers GPs lose too much money compared to working in a clinic, when they drive around doing home visits during the day. The Medicare rebate for home visits is just not high enough to get more doctors involved. That's one reason - the main reason, I think. However, there are others, including some relative isolation and lack of back up when you take leave. Of course in the UK, where Doctor Martin merrily conducts his home visits, the structure of doctor remuneration is different (it has its pros and cons there), but ultimately, it's more favourable to doing home visits, so more are done.
At the end of the day, one thing is for sure though, the problem is getting bigger. Even fewer younger GPs are willing to do home visits, yet as there is a swelling elderly population, the need is rising. We can choose to turn a blind eye. However, there remain such well meaning citizens, battling out there in their homes, crying out for a caring regular GP, and Mobile GP aims to be part of that solution - by earnestly supporting you - the GP.
So how can Mobile GP help you?
With the above points noted, we thought - how do we make doing home visits more believable for GPs? Sure, we could ask the Government to increase the Medicare rebate for home visits - but that's beyond our direct control. And so we think that the best way to encourage more home visits is to support you as best as we can.
We provide:
- Access to Best Practice clinical software
- IT support
- Administrative support - including access to a receptionist
- Management support
- Marketing support
We hope that through Mobile GP we can set up an ecosystem of GPs who are really interested in such mobile work, and helping this population of patients in need. And, in due course, we hope that those GPs benefit from the creation of this network - Mobile GP.
What are the rules?
There are not many. Just basically that you use the service for its intended need, and that we strive to remain positive and affirmative as we progress, as a group. So here they are:
- We exist for the purpose of providing regular daytime GP care to those who cannot readily access a medical clinic. These include older persons, frail and disabled.
- We aim to make our services affordable for the Government and individual user and seek efficiencies throughout the process to achieve this
- In accordance with point 2, we deliver our services and use our knowledge as medical professionals in a way which is empowering and that maximises patient autonomy and self-determination.
- We appreciate that there are many obstacles, yet remain relentlessly solution focussed – always.
Why are we doing this?
Hey, being a GP is a rewarding but demanding job. We agree. Still, a GP has the real potential to make a substantial difference in the lives' of vulnerable patients. A massive difference. And we want to see this happen. So, we figured if we can help make the job of visiting patients at home less demanding, supporting you in all the ways we can think of and forming a team :)
How do you join?
Give us a call on 1300 268 431 or send an email to [email protected]
Key Sponsors
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We support using business as a force for good. In keeping with this, Atticus Health is a Certified B Corporation. For more information about Atticus Health and the B Corp movement, please see the about page.
