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Leading GP’s submission to Covid inquiry

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Inquiry into the Victorian Government’s COVID-19 Contact Tracing System and Testing Regime

Terms of Reference

That this House requires the Legal and Social Issues Committee to inquire into, consider and monitor the capacity and fitness for purpose of the Victorian Government’s COVID‐19 contact tracing system and testing regime, and in doing so consult with businesses, including small business representatives, the community sector and Victoria’s multicultural communities, and provide a report to the House no later than 14 December 2020.

Presenter:  Dr Mukesh Haikerwal AC; General Medical Practitioner, Altona North.

Briefing submission: Mukesh Haikerwal 

Microsoft Word […]

Covid and general practice

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By Mukesh Haikerwal

This is the “wash-up” of the COVID effort in our Respiratory clinic in Melbourne’s Western suburbs practice in Altona.  

Below please find the link for the Report into the Contact tracing inquiry in Victoria. Your own exposure to this will be interesting in the New Year. None of us are out of the woods yet! 

Below please find the link for the Report into the Contact tracing inquiry:  your own exposure to this will be interesting in the New Year.

GPs best for vaccination roll-out

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By an AGPA writer

Pharmacists must be salivating at the thought of playing “a role in the wider Covid-19 vaccination roll-out from mid-2021”, in the words of a Department of Health official quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Of course, the salivation is not over the modest fee for providing the vaccination. Rather it is because of the foot traffic into the pharmacy which these days sells everything from beach toys to mobile phone accessories.

Govt big on rural practice, but what about the rest?

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By Crispin Hull

In the past week the Federal Government renewed its commitment to extra funding for health care in rural and regional Australia and to extending training into smaller rural communities and rural residential aged-care facilities.

Answering a question in the Senate (2 December 2020) the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Michaela Cash, stressed the need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach.

This comes at a time when the Department of Health is working with the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine so that the colleges take […]

Getting GP registrars’ model right

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As the Federal Department moves towards handing the totality of the Australian GP Training Scheme to the colleges, the ultimate model for paying GP registrars remains in the air. At present, the registrars are employed by practice businesses on a base rate which is supplemented according to how many patients they see.

The GP Training Advisory Committee – a profession-led committee that advisory committee has put up for discussion a model in which the colleges employ the registrars.

Award changes that affect practices

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By Stephanie McGrath*

On 8 April 2020 the Fair Work Commission issued a decision on pandemic leave for Health Sector Awards, inserting additional measures (known as “Schedule X”) during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Schedule X was incorporated into the following health care sector Awards:

Payroll tax: what to do

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By John Deery

Payroll tax has been on the agenda for practice owners since the successful prosecution of the Optical Superstores by the Victorian State Revenue Office in 2019. 

There is an active audit program ongoing within NSW. Our members in WA have also reported facing SRO audit as well. 

The crux of the matter is dependent upon the relationship between your business and the contracting doctors. 

Practice owners face payroll-tax fight

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By Crispin Hull*

Practice owners in at least four states are squarely in the sights of state revenue offices seeking payroll tax on payments made to GPs in their practices.

There have been a couple of frightening courts cases imposing payroll taxes on GP practice owners or like set-ups.

Online urology symposium

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Saturday 14 November 2020.

The Department of Urology and University of Melbourne Department of Surgery and the Austin Hospital will host a virtual symposium on Saturday 14 November 2020 from 8am to 2.45pm. The symposium is titled: Urology issues for GPs and practice nurses.

The registration page is here: https://bit.ly/38bXPnL Registration is free.