GPs have called on the government to boost the National Disability Insurance Scheme to support patients in the bush.
It comes following the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' submission to a Parliamentary Committee inquiry into NDIS participant experience in rural, regional, and remote Australia.
College president Dr Nicole Higgins said that no communities should be left behind.
The RACGP wants the government to reform Medicare or explore alternative solutions to help GPs manage patients on the NDIS including providing more money so they are paid for time spent preparing reports and other paperwork. It also wants to see an expanding the list of disability-related health supports funded by the NDIS to include some general practice supports not covered by Medicare.
"The Medicare rebate system makes our job helping patients looking to access the NDIS near impossible, and that must change. A GP's time is sorely limited, and we aren't remunerated for the time spent writing lengthy reports to support NDIS applications when patients aren't present.
"This is particularly challenging outside of our cities, as rural GPs work within a varied scope due to limited local health services and play such a versatile role meeting the diverse needs of their community. So, for them, there is an even higher administrative and financial burden. Also, Medicare doesn't adequately recognise the work we do coordinating multidisciplinary care teams and we're not supported to liaise with NDIS service providers.
"The NDIS is a game changer full of opportunities, but people with a disability in the bush are being left behind. We have the solutions to significantly improve the NDIS outside of major cities.
Dr Higgins said patients in the bush had reported long wait times and having to travel gruelling distances at their own expense to access specialist care and other services.
RACGP Vice President and Rural Chair, Associate Professor Michael Clements, said that the Government must repair a two-tiered NDIS.
"Right now, we have a two-tiered NDIS - one for people in major cities, another for people living everywhere else. Rural GPs tell me about concerns regarding the quality of supports in rural and remote communities due to limited resources and an often under-skilled workforce. This is not to criticise workers doing their best in a challenging situation, it's a system-wide issue. These same GPs also warn about a lack of transparency in understanding what services have been provided to patients by their support teams.