Breakthrough claimed in GP fees row

Subsidised GP visits for middle-aged patients could be back on track after progress in talks today.

Around 700,000 people aged between 45 and 64 are due to benefit from the reduced fees once the Government ploughs in another $110 million after July 1.

But the talks between District Health Boards (DHBs) and GPs groups hit rough ground on Tuesday when the largest family doctors' group, IPAC, withdrew.

Health Boards have now claimed a breakthrough after rewording key points in their subsidies offer.

A spokesman for the DHBs today said the revised offer had already been accepted in principle by an organisation representing 16 of the country's 81 public health organisations (PHOs) and a formal letter of offer would go out to all other GPs later today.

However, DHBs are placing conditions on getting the new funding and GPs' representatives are urging doctors not to sign any agreements that they say would allow the Government to set their fees.

Under the reworded offer, doctors would no longer have to notify DHBs before they lifted fees. They could instead notify DHBs at the same time they took action.

If fee rises were seen as questionable an independent review process would still take place, but the result of that review would no longer be binding.

The spokesman said the changes were along the lines of what most GP groups were trying to achieve and DHBs were hopeful there would be a decent uptake.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson yesterday defended the DHB stance in negotiations.

He told Parliament's health select committee GPs were mistaken when they said the Government was trying to set fees.

He said that during the roll-outs of three previous subsidies for different groups there had been some drops in fees, but they had not been universal. "There have been some unfortunate examples of a few number of doctors putting up their fees and effectively taking the money from the taxpayer... (and) ending up going into the doctor's pocket and some of those fees have been unreasonable."

Mr Hodgson said he was determined to ensure that any future fee increases were "not unreasonable", but this did not mean he wanted to set or cap fees.

Most GPs could put up fees by notification, but if they seemed unreasonable then there had to be a way to review them.

If doctors did not sign up to the new money, then Mr Hodgson said he would work with those who did and leave the door open for others to join up later.

- NZPA