Senior Commonwealth government representatives are meeting today with doctors'; groups to tackle red tape issues as they affect general practice.
The Secretary of my Department, Dr Peter Shergold, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Ageing, Ms Jane Halton, and other Department Heads will discuss priorities for how the Commonwealth can best work with general practice on lowering the administrative costs of doing business.
The meeting is the latest step in the government';s vigorous response across Commonwealth agencies to the Productivity Commission Report on General Practice Administrative and Compliance Costs. The report highlighted a range of areas where the impact of Commonwealth programmes on general practice needs to be examined with a view to reducing administrative complexity and allowing GPs to spend more time with their patients.
In early May, the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Patterson and I established a Red Tape Taskforce to reduce the amount of Commonwealth red tape to help support this valued profession. The Taskforce is working to develop Government initiatives to this end.
It is vital the work of the Taskforce is well informed by the views of general practice and other key groups.
Following initial consultations, the Taskforce is expecting to release discussion papers on a range of issues arising from the Productivity Commission Report in the next few weeks.
More information on the work of the Red Tape Taskforce is available at http://www.health.gov.au/redtape/index.htm. An e-mail address for doctors and interested parties to provide information, ideas and feedback has also been set up. The e-mail address is redtape.taskforce@health.gov.au.