Delegation to practice nurses may be the main reason for an increase in Level A consultations
In their analysis of Medicare claims data for general practice consultations published in this issue of the Journal, Taylor and colleagues report a recent decline in Level C and D (long) consultations and an increase in Level A (short) consultations — a pattern they consider to be “at odds with health policy objectives that rely on long consultations to provide preventive care and chronic disease management”.1 They hypothesise that the increased use of Level A consultations may reflect:
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During the data collection years reported here, the BEACH program was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the National Prescribing Service Ltd, AstraZeneca Pty Ltd (Australia), Roche Products Pty Ltd, Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd, Merck Sharp and Dohme (Australia) Pty Ltd, Pfizer Australia, Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd, Abbott Australasia, Wyeth Australia Pty Ltd, Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and the Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (Department of Employment and Workplace Relations).
The pharmaceutical companies listed above have or have had research agreements with the University of Sydney. Funding organisations have no influence on the BEACH program and have had no input into the planning, analyses for, or preparation of this article.