Will Australia’s GP Shortage Affect Your IME
In November 2022, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) released a report that detailed Australia’s alarming national General Practitioner shortage, which is expected to dramatically worsen by 2031-32 if immediate action isn’t taken.
The AMA identified numerous cultural and systemic challenges that have impacted the drop in GP numbers, and recommends swift Government and stakeholder action to minimise the prolonged impact on our healthcare system.
Why is there a GP shortage?
While GP shortages vary significantly between Australian states and territories, metro and rural locations, the AMA research report revealed that there has been a 58.4% increase in demand for GP services in the ten years between 2009-2019.
The following factors are driving this demand:
- Population growth
- An aging population
- Increase in the number of visits per person
- Increased visit complexity and therefore duration of GP consults
Compounding the shortage are fewer people studying medicine in general, and of those, fewer are becoming GPs, meaning retiring ones are not being replaced at the usual rates.
Many GPs – particularly post the heights of the Covid pandemic – are also choosing to work reduced hours in an effort to better support their mental and physical well-being or to spend more time with their families.
This created a perfect storm for a severe GP shortage crisis and is only projected to get worse over the next ten years.
Effects of GP shortages
The long and short term impacts on our healthcare systems due to a shortage of General Practitioners will look like:
- Increased workload for existing GPs
- Overworked and stressed practice staff
- GPs spending less and less time with patients
- Lower quality of care
- Prolonged wait times
- Lack of appointment availability
- Higher cost of appointments
All these points contribute to a general declining standard of treatment for patients, and an increase in patients not seeking timely medical advice or care.
The impact of the GP crisis on IMEs
As anyone who regularly navigates Medico-Legal matters knows, to ensure you get the best result possible, the medical expert preparing your report needs to have access to a detailed bank of medical evidence to draw from. In many cases, the preliminary practitioner, and the one who is providing the continuity of care for an examinee, will be their GP.
Having an accurate summary of past medical information and related evidence is integral to the successful outcome of an IME (Independent Medical Examination). Especially when the matter is in relation to a review of permanent impairment, or how an injury or illness may have impacted a person’s capacity to work in the future. The GP shortage not only has the potential to negatively impact the outcome of an IME, but the wait time, the reliability of the expert opinion, and potentially the overall outcome of a matter.
A medical expert conducting an IME generally needs to
- Build out a timeline from pre to post injury
- Review medical history to help determine causation and prognosis
- Identify the past treatment pathways undertaken by the examinee
- Make recommendations on past, present, and future treatment and care
- Determine if the examinee has reached maximum medical improvement (meaning that an injury or illness has stablised and is unlikely to improve significantly over the next 12 months)
With all of this information, the medical expert can confidently provide their independent medical opinion and the referring client can be assured that the medico-legal report is reliable to support the claim process. Which is why having access to reliable medical evidence from a GP is so crucial. If they don’t have it, they can’t provide the most accurate or certain opinion, which may end up costing you and your clients in the long run.
How can Red Health Help?
Anyone who has been through a medico-legal assessment knows how complex and time-consuming it can be. The GP shortage crisis looks set to impact everyone, and the medico-legal industry will not be exempt. Clients must do all they can to prevent delays wherever possible.
In the meantime, Red Health will continue to offer you as much clarity and efficiency as possible. Our referral network of 200+ experts across 40+ disclipines, Red Connect virtual assessment options, and Red Assess Plus optimised evaluations give Red Health clients the advantage and support our average report wait time of around ten business days.
