Just before the Federal health department decamped for Christmas, it quietly released the Medicare Review Taskforce’s official recommendations for revamping the MBS items underpinning billions of dollars in GP funding.

Five years in the making, they are significant.

Not because they are a big bang reform revolution but because they are no revolution at all.

Over the last 10 years federal governments of all persuasions have floundered badly after issuing bold proclamations to improve the health system.