At present about 60% of GP's have a practice nurse already.

A cash bonus from the Federal Government is the "carrot" to encourage the other 40% of GP's to follow.

The Federal Governement needs a "stick" to make sure GP's (a private employer of nurses)

1. pay reasonable wages to the nurses (there is no award)
2. pay for initial and ongoing nurse training
3. respect nurses as an independent & registered clinician within the multidisciplinary clinical team
4. provide a suitable workspace for nurses
5. pay for the nurses medical indemnity insurance

Let's hope the checks and balances are inplace to ensure both the carrot and the stick ensure value for money and not just line GP's pockets!

I had no idea of the 60/40 ratio Bermaci; my GPs have always had the same Nursing Sister for at least 10 years; in fact after I flew off my mountain bike head first somersaulting through the air a few years ago, it was this wonderful Nurse who stitched me up and left no scars!! Fantastic job performed, if you had seen the mess my face chin and jaw were in, along with the mangled fingers. Only one GP was working that Saturday and the Nursing Sister took charge of the emergency. Will be grateful to her for the remainder of my life.

We are unique.

Glad to hear you had a positive experience with practice nurses.

For some reason the mainstream media (and some GP's) think Practice Nurses (PN) are a new concept and threaten the existence of doctors.

In fact there are over 8,000 practice nurses across Australia already and there are specific PN Medicare item numbers already allocated for some of the work they perform.

Mainstream media seem to be taking side of the GP's that are anti PNs.

Those enlightened GP's that see the value of PN's and employ them as valuable colleagues as a member of their multidisciplinary team.

There are also the dinasours GP's who live in the past under the ethos "Dr rule and don't ask questions".

If we want to make genuine moves into true preventative health, those dinasours need to be weeded out