In January Australian Doctor reported on a GP who was prosecuted for breaching the 80/20 rule. I’m probably the last person who should be writing about the politics behind the 80/20 rule but I would like to offer a few comments about the professional standards associated with it.

Basically, GPs who provide more than 80 services per day for more than 20 days per year are investigated under Medicare Australia’s Practitioner Review Program.

I am not sure whether this rule was designed to prevent overservicing or to maintain professional standards, but I suspect the former.

Whichever, I would like to think that the vast majority of GPs would look unfavourably upon the small number of our colleagues who are caught out under this rule unless there were genuine, extenuating circumstances of a short-lived nature.