GP fees increase after subsidy rises

Some Wellington doctors have raised their fees just months after getting more Government cash to lower them, prompting fears the subsidy is not being passed on to patients.

The Government gave an extra $47 million a year from last July to provide cheaper doctors' fees for 305,000 people aged 65 and over.

At the time, health organisations had to assure the Health Ministry the new funding - equivalent to a subsidy of $24 to $26 a person - would be passed on to patients.

But Capital and Coast District Health Board chief executive Margot Mains said she had received several notifications of fee increases from family doctors in the Kapiti and Capital primary health organisations.

Base fees had risen to between $58 and $63, putting up the Government-subsidised fees for under-18s and over-65s by $2-$3, to between $32 and $37.

"This is not low-cost access," Ms Mains said.

A shortage of GPs in Porirua and the Kapiti Coast means patients cannot easily move to a cheaper doctor.

The Health Ministry said it would be concerned if doctors were putting up fees soon after getting more funding.

It was up to DHBs to make sure funding increases were passed on to patients, a spokeswoman said.

But Wellington Independent Practice Association spokesman Richard Tyler said the Government should realise that constraints on income would not ease the GP shortage.

"I don't think the ministry should be too hard on doctors making an extra buck. That's what is going to save general practice.

"We need a bit of that to attract the young ones in."

Fees might have to be further increased, as doctors would have to pay practice nurses more to compete with the new national hospital nurses' pay deal, he said.

- NZPA