Medical service future in doubt

The viability of the Woy Woy After Hours Medical Service is in doubt after a funding application has been rejected.

The service has been refused funding under the Quality Innovations Program; a program aimed at improving the quality of the service provided by accredited after hours services.

The Woy Woy After Hours Medical Service was seeking money to overhaul its billing practices and corporate documentation.

However, the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care has rejected the funding application because it did not "represent value for money".

Woy Woy After Hours Medical Service, is Australia's oldest hospital-based GP after hours service, operating out of Woy Woy Hospital since 1972.

Service chairman Dr Paul Duff said the decision seriously threatens the future of the company.

"We are extremely disappointed by this decision.

"This money would have allowed us to do two very important things.

"The first would have been to broaden our billing options so that patients would not have been obliged to pay cash at the time of service.

"While we bulk bill many of our services, those that we don't are in many instances obligated to pay cash because of the lack of training or infrastructure."

"The second thing we sought money for was the opportunity to properly document the 32 years of experience we have gained in running a self-funding after hours service.

"We hoped to publish this information on the internet to provide a guide for any group of doctors in a regional areas to set up and run a co-operative like ours."

Dr Duff said that while at first glance neither of these issues would appear to be life or death for the service the truth was much more serious.

"Almost all of the complaints we receive about the service relate to billing issues.

"While there are not huge numbers of them, each one takes a big toll on the morale of the service and seriously undermines our relationship with Central Coast Health."

"In the meantime, it is becoming harder and harder to run an effective service, let alone one based in a public hospital," he said.

"It is vital that we document everything we have learnt about doing this.

"If either our part-time secretary or I suddenly became unavailable, there is a very real chance that the service as we know it would fail."

Dr Duff said there was huge advantages of co-locating with an area health service in terms of patient access and affordability.

"Patients could access a fully qualified GP at any time through the night or weekends on the Woy Woy Peninsula for a maximum out of pocket cost of $25."

The estimated cost to a patient of a housecall based service, including security costs, would be between $100 and $150.

"This would be the alternative without a little bit of Government support," Dr Duff said.

"Millions of dollars have been poured into the Maitland model of a co-located after hours service, a model which will require millions to stay alive, yet we get turned down on a one-off grant of a few thousand to keep alive a co-located service which is self funding.

"I just don't see the logic in it," he said.

Press release, July 22 Woy Woy After Hours Medical Service