February 1, 2023
Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington fears a ruling by the Queensland Revenue Office (QRO) in December could mean the end of bulk-billing by GPs in Queensland.
The ruling followed a tribunal decision in NSW where GPs contracted to medical centres were deemed to be receiving “taxable wages” for the purposes of levying payroll tax.
The QRO then clarified the position was the same in Queensland.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Bruce Willett has warned the increased payroll tax will cut into the profit margins for clinics.
“I recently met with staff and doctors from the Nanango Medical Centre to discuss the many issues affecting GPs and medical centres, especially the threat being imposed by the introduction of the State Labor Government’s new ‘patient tax’,” Mrs Frecklington said.
She said the QRO ruling had re-interpreted the law.
“This will mean practices will have no choice but to increase the cost of seeing a GP, and could see the end of bulk-billing in Queensland,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“Unfortunately, the State Government refuses to acknowledge the serious ramifications this change will have for patients and GP practices. They refuse to acknowledge that GPs are already being forced to shut their doors, and charge patients more to see their doctor.
“I am calling on the State Labor Government to put a stop to the new Patient Tax.
“At the very least, they must make an exemption for rural and regional practices, especially the very few that still provide bulk-billing services.
“For rural and regional areas that are already feeling the effect of a lack of GPs, and the further pressure this places on our hospital system, this is tax that will have dire consequences for a health system already in crisis.”
I suffered serious injuries from a drunk driver and now I’m forced to pay a GP every fortnight for scripts I need to manage my complex issues.
Why worry about bulk billing (which has pretty much ended in Kingaroy anyway) when the BIG problem is that doctors don’t want to come here at all.
I make the 5 hour round trip twice a year to see a GP in Toowoomba (and then pay for the appointment) because no practice here has taken new patients for a long time.
That’s petrol, appointment cost (total around $200) and the long gruelling trip on a tired old body.
But no, Kingaroy is the “backside of the world” and no doctor wants to move here, but its okay for many of us to drive long distances. I had to drive to Bribie Island for a sunspot check last year, and I nearly cried as I walked past two clinics, both on the same block, each having six GPs… I guess living next to the beach is more important than the people you could treat.
Well, here is FOOD for thought, the average age of farmers is 75, they can’t keep going forever. What are you going to do for food in the city when the younger farmers are getting sick and can’t get local treatment, so have to stop farming?
Country people need looking after. Being a doctor was once a “calling”. No more, nowadays it’s a job and we miss out, and we aren’t even that far from the city. If its entertainment doctors crave, they can go away for a weekend! Plus house prices here are still much cheaper than in Brisbane.
I don’t know why they won’t come here. Our remaining doctors are getting older, with no replacements in sight.
As to the hospital, well, that’s okay for an emergency (like a suspected heart attack) but not as a replacement for a GP. Don’t bother going up for a script, you’ll be told “stop wasting our time”, as a friend of mine was.
At least some of my scripts can be sent over my mobile, although the cost of the phone call to my GP to do that is $80 per time.
I’m not rich, I’m low-income so health care REALLY adds up.
The College of Practitioners reported 20,000 unnecessary deaths in the country areas last year. I wonder why… probably poor people, with NO GP close who just went to bed thinking “oh well, my chest hurts, if I wake up in the morning, I do”.