Initial AMA Submission to Wound Management Working Group
The AMA has provided an initial submission to the MBS Review's Wound Management Working Group. The Group has been tasked with reviewing 13 MBS acute wound management items and related recommendations of other MBS committees and to look at mechanisms other than the MBS to support chronic wound management.
The AMA's submission primarily focusses on overcoming the barriers to providing optimal chronic wound management, the majority of which is provided in general practice. The AMA wants to see patients supported to access best practice wound management and that medical practitioners are supported to provide best practice care. The submission includes suggestions such as:
- Ensuring that general practices are directly provisioned with a stock of Government funded dressings as one way to facilitate patient access to the right dressing/bandage for the right wound; or
- The development of a wound consumables schedule that GPs could bill against to cover the costs of dressings/bandages provided to patients.
The AMA encourages the working group to ensure that any recommendations they make support GP stewardship and the patient centred medical home, and do not undermine the collaborative care arrangements already in existence, or wilfully fragment care. It is vital there is qualified clinical oversight by a medical practitioner of patient care, so as to guard against delays in appropriate treatment, unnecessary testing, and inappropriate referrals.
The AMA will make a further submission when it has completed reviewing the draft recommendations made by other MBS Review groups around acute wound items.
