08-07-2025
What's TassieDoc? Labor's government-run GP clinic solution explained
If it is not the cost of doctors that is concerning Tasmanians, it is the availability.
The wait to see a GP can be weeks long and the gap between the doctor's fee and what Medicare covers can be costly.
For some, it means taking fewer trips to the doctor. Delaying GP visits also places more pressure on the state's already overburdened hospital system.
Labor thinks it has the answer: TassieDoc.
The idea is so promising, the Liberals have even vowed to match it.
Tasmanian Labor is proposing to create five government-run GP clinics in health hubs across the state that bulk-bill.
The idea is that the state government would provide the clinic and consulting rooms, as well as paying the nursing and admin staff.
Instead of needing to own the practice, doctors would be contractors.
Labor says each clinic would have four full-time-equivalent GPs.
The hope is that by alleviating the cost burdens of staffing and the clinic itself, doctors would be able to charge patients the cost of the Medicare benefit.
It's inspired by the federal and state governments' Urgent Care Clinics (UCC).
Labor says it will result in 100,000 bulk-billed appointments per year.
To put it in perspective, data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows GPs in Tasmania provided 6.7 million appointments between June 2024 and May 2025.
The plan is also for the clinics to operate with extended hours, including evenings and weekends.
Labor's Clark candidate and health spokesperson Ella Haddad said the clinics would be run out of existing state-run health clinics such as the Glenorchy Health Centre.
"We'll provide the bricks and mortar, we'll provide the nursing and admin staff that will allow doctors to come in and do what they do best, which is provide care to their patients.
"Not every doctor wants to be a business owner or have to worry about hiring staff."
TassieDoc patients will be bulk-billed for visits, meaning there will be no out-of-pocket payment.
As an election promise, Labor says it will spend $5 million to fit out the new clinics, then $4 million a year to keep them running, and $2 million towards incentives for GPs to work at them.
It has yet to be costed by Treasury.
A UCC is simply that, a clinic for urgent situations, not regular GP check-ups or emergencies.
UCCs were created to try to deal with that middle ground so that only genuine emergencies end up presenting in emergency departments.
The other difference is the way they are run and funded.
UCCs are co-funded federal and state initiatives and are found across the country.
While Tasmanian Labor has been talking up what state and federal Labor can do when their powers combine, TassieDoc is not a partnership.
The "powered by Medicare" policy just takes advantage of the Albanese government's decision to triple the Medicare bulk-billing incentive for GPs.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not even utter the words "TassieDoc" while standing alongside Labor Leader Dean Winter at a press conference on Tuesday, instead spruiking his government's many UCCs.
Within hours of Labor revealing their plan, the Liberals pledged to "open five new GP bulk-billing clinics", claiming they were already doing it and had just announced one the day before in Legana.
But that was a UCC.
The Liberals have suggested Labor is rebadging said clinics, but the models are different.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he would match Labor's promise "and more".
In a further statement, Liberal Franklin candidate and health spokesperson Jacquie Petrusma said the Liberals would "work with GPs on the best way of delivering additional GP services right around the state".
"Including five clinics under the TassieDoc model and other innovative ways to support existing GPs like in Legana and Bicheno," Ms Petrusma said.
That is where those $2 million in incentive payments come in.
Labor is hoping they will be able to attract and retain 150 new GPs to Tasmania.
There will be 100 payments worth $10,000 available for GPs working in urban areas, and 50 worth $20,000 for GPs in rural and regional communities.
The Liberals have their own incentive payments that are already in place, offering up $100,000 to mainland doctors who want to move to the state.
The Liberals have also been trying to boost the number of GPs through the single-employer training model, where the state government offers doctors a single contract for their entire traineeship.
"We have 200 GPs in training right now, so [it's] fully subscribed," Mr Rockliff said.
"One hundred and fifty GPs are being supervised in regional clinics, [with] 40 of those fully qualified by the end of the year."
Standing with Labor at the first very TassieDoc press conference, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) Tim Jones described the policy as "future-focused".
He also said he believed it would be "attractive" to new and interstate GPs.
"We are training a record number of GPs here in Tasmania, but those are doctors who do not have business experience, who are not clinic owners," he said.
"We think that working under this model is going to enable them to do what they do best, which is just focus on the care of their patients."
Rural Doctors Association of Tasmania president Ben Dodds was more reserved, saying it was "an interesting line for the state to cross".
"It's one that may lead to some perils in terms of the state learning how to own, operate and run general practices. It's an area that they don't have any experience in," he said.
"There's evidence of other jurisdictions doing it in areas of market failure [and] in rural and remote areas.
"In the context of TassieDocs, implementing this initiative where there might already be viable private General Practice does risk reorganising the doctors in the local community and not actually bringing any new services to Tasmania."
Dr Dodds said with the cost of running a general practice having increased significantly, the TassieDoc model might appeal to those doctors who were less interested in the business side of things.
"But the state government is going to be up for the cost of running the practice, which ultimately the taxpayer foots the bill for," he said.
"When local government steps in to run general practices, for example, in the Huon Valley with Geeveston and Dover, they're often run at a loss.
"Even though they're subsidised by the council, the overall practice loses money with higher bulk-billing rates, so it will be a very costly exercise for the state government."
