A Canberra general practice says it will cut down on patients and prioritise longer appointments, in a move to reduce the "churn" effect created by low Medicare rebates.
Dr Laura Chapman, one of three new co-owners of Kambah Village Medical Practice, said the centre would distance itself from the standard 15-minute appointment model.
"Largely because of the sub-standard Medicare rebates that our services attract, there's been a little bit of a push ... to adopt this really high turnover model of care," she said.
"We find that really unsatisfying, but it also means that we're potentially depriving our patients of that time with us, that really comprehensive care and getting to know our patients really well."
While the practice will still offer 15-minute appointments, some doctors will only offer 30-minute appointments, and patients will be charged based on the time it takes, rather than the amount of time they were booked for.
"Instead of feeling like you have to churn through a patient every 10 or 15 minutes, that means some GPs might be seeing 40 patients a day, it's really hard to keep on top of that, whereas for me, I might see 14 patients a day," Dr Chapman said.
An analysis released in September found only 4 per cent of Canberra's general practitioner clinics offered bulk billing, though the Cleanbill study did not include information on whether clinics offered bulk billing to certain patients such as children or concession card holders.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners chair Charlotte Hespe said the low Medicare rebate meant bulk billing was only financially viable for practitioners providing "volume-based care".
"The only way that the bulk billing practices have tended to be able to remain providing that service is to do what I call a volume-based care, which is you just push [someone] through in five to seven minutes," Dr Hespe said.
"In my consultations I would, on average, probably have about five to six problems that I deal with for each patient when I see them," she said.
"You can't do that in less than 20 minutes most of the time if you're actually doing high-quality care."
The rejig at the Kambah practice will also be focused on improving workplace safety for the 10 doctors.
"Part of what we're hoping to provide our people is not only an environment where they don't have to meet number quotas, which can be a bit soul-destroying, really," Dr Chapman said.
"But an environment where they're really invited to have the opportunity to get to know their patients to practice their amazing skill set to operate comprehensively."
Dr Hespe said taking more time for patients meant "better wellbeing for everybody".
"I actually think that doctors have chosen, they don't want to do a volume-based churn, it's totally unsatisfying," Dr Hespe said.
Dr Chapman, Dr Tracy Liang and Dr Chalani Weerasinghe will relaunch the practice as "This Is" general practice shortly.
"Now is a really good time to make sure that passionate GPs are being well looked after and being able to pursue what they love, and making sure that Medicare rebates don't dictate the quality of care that we provide," Dr Chapman said.
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