Opinion: Why I’ve stopped bulk-billing after 20 years as a GP | Marie Healy
My induction into general practice at Redfern in 1999 could not have been less glamorous. One of my first patients, with a long history of alcohol misuse, soiled himself, everywhere. I shuffled him out, gloved up, and spent the best part of the next hour cleaning up.
A lot has changed over the past two decades. Public hospitals, such as Rachel Forster, South Sydney and King George V, have closed. Health services have been privatised and outsourced. There’s less access to physios, occupational therapists and outpatient clinics. New aged care and mental health referral pathways have blocked communication between GPs and service providers.
The practice takes a proportion of all our earnings to pay for nurses, receptionists, equipment and the usual running costs. In the end, it’s a matter of survival.I have always bulk-billed pensioners, even for home visits, which I still provide regularly. Now there is a $20 gap fee. Ironically, it is those least able to afford it who are happy to pay.