The Australian Government has decided to new Medicare funding for General Practitioners to vaccinate patients during home visits and visits to aged care facilities. This announcement has received a huge appreciation from the Australian Medical Association.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is a professional collaboration of doctors in Australia. It aims to promote and protect the professional interests of doctors and the healthcare needs of patient communities.
AMA President Dr.Omar Khorshid said, “It is critical we complete the job of vaccinating the most vulnerable in the community as soon as possible. This measure will help plug the current gaps in COVID vaccination in aged care facilities.”
What else is expected?
Vaccinating older people would be the biggest issue for healthcare professionals. Vaccine hesitancy was found to be more common among them. The current Medicare funding supports only brief consultations, but in real-time, GPs might need to spend some more time with the patients to discuss the benefits of vaccination.
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The professionals from AMA opine:
The Government needs to ensure that Medicare will cover the extra time spent on discussions with a GP in the interests of all Australians.
The Government needs to continue listening to the experts to protect the most vulnerable Australians from COVID-19 in the near winter.
Vaccination drives should be speeded up among the people in residential aged care homes.
“It will now also be easier for patients to get vaccinated when they cannot get to their local GP. This will help those with mobility problems unable to leave their homes easily and support more people in disability accommodation access vaccination via a GP,” Dr. Omar added.
Source: Medindia
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