Doctors call for new MBS care plan for patients with chronic wounds
If adopted by the Govt, patients would access up to ten sessions with a GP nurse to manage their dressings
The Federal Government is being urged to fund GPs to draw up chronic wound ‘care plans’ and introduce a new $14.70 item for practice nurses to change dressings.
The failure of Medicare to adequately fund wound care in general practice has been a long-running burden, especially the ban on charging patients for dressings administered in a bulk-billed consultation.
In response, the AMA has released a 43-page report detailing a fix.
It says a $75.75 MBS item should be introduced for GPs to perform assessments of a patient’s chronic wounds, which would then open access to up to 10 practice nurse consultations to change dressings over the next four weeks.
