Medicare to pay for nursing help in busy GP clinics

Some of Adelaide's busiest GPs will get Government-funded nurses to help in their clinics.

The South Australian Government will spend $8 million over four years on 50 nurses to support general practitioners.

Health Minister John Hill says it will allow the clinics to treat more patients and should lead to fewer needing to go to public hospitals.

He says the nursing work will qualify for Commonwealth Medicare subsidies.

"The nurses can be paid for out of Medicare numbers if they're providing services that are approved by the doctor and approved by Medicare," he said.

"It's an unusual step for us to take, we'd be the first State Government I think to do this.

"We did it following advice from the AMA (Australian Medical Association) who said that they thought was the sensible thing for us to do ... It's a relatively small investment for us to make."

Article from abc.net.au/news