David Guest wrote:
The obvious group to benefit from something like this would be Primary.
You could walk into any Primary store and the docs would have full
access to your medical record. It would even give Bateman an opportunity
to enter the specialist market since there would be advantages in
vertical integration.
David,
He is already in the specialist market. Our local Primary medical centre
has 15 or so GPs and specialists, dentists, CT scanner, X-Ray, you name
it. It is also surrounded by smaller practices that mostly seem to be
doing fine.
The big medical centre will only soak up part of the market because they
only scale to larger commercial centres. Lots of smaller GPs exist
everywhere else. There isn't the monetary advantage in an area like ours
where nearly everyone bulk-bills anyway. So its not really like Coles
versus the local corner store.
We are the home of small practices. Our cultural diversity helps too,
I'm sure.
I don't see it happening as it would entail them
writing off their $100 million investment in HCN.
Why? they are still using Medtech32 at all their centres, as far as I
know. I've been waiting for the pundits to poke fun at them and ask why
they aren't backing their own product.
If somebody else could make this work, it would be the death knell of
city solo and small group practice, but I guess that rang a while ago.
David, you need to come to Southern Sydney sometime and I'll take you
around many solo practices. They exist right across this part of Sydney
where bulk-billing still rules, unlike most of the the rest of the
country. Before the $5 for under 16s and pensioners came in our
bulk-bill rate had dropped to about 95%, but I'm sure it's higher now.
Like the bush, our problem is ageing GPs, and I don't know what the
answer to that one will be. I think it's the real 'sleeper' issue. They
are mostly old, but no-one is telling us they are planning to retire any
time soon.
Greg
--
Greg Twyford
Information Management & Technology Program Officer
Canterbury Division of General Practice
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ph.: 02 9787 9033
Fax: 02 9787 9200
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