The peak body for rural doctors has come out in support of the decision to axe dozens of Medicare items for GP telephone consults, saying “patients will ultimately benefit” by taking up video.

From 1 July, two GP items will remain for phone-based consults lasting up to six minutes (with a $17.75 rebate) and those longer than six minutes (with a $38.75 rebate).

A small number of items for phone-based mental health consults will also survive the cull, but other phone-based items for long consults, health assessments and care plans will be deleted.

RDAA president Dr John Hall defended the move, which he labelled a small but much-needed step away from low-quality phone-based care.