Allied health referring to specialists will ‘blow out the budget, like the NDIS’
RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said the review had made assumptions that were 'utopia not realism'.
The Federal Government’s Scope of Practice Review says letting dietitians refer directly to gastroenterologists and midwives refer to psychiatrists will save patients money from “arbitrary” GP consults.
But RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins says it sets up the government for massive cost blowouts.
“GPs have a lot of training around when not to prescribe and not to refer,” she said.
She echoed the point from AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen that allied health referrers might fail to realise that the problem could be treated in general practice.
