Last week the Department of Health sent letters to 341 general practitioners, accusing them of inappropriately claiming Medicare funding for managing both a physical and a psychological issue in one consultation.

Essentially, Medicare will pay for one or the other problem, but not both, and the department was warning these GPs to cut their consultations short, bill the patient privately for one of the matters, or tell the patient to come back another time.

It is a 'bureaucrat's fantasy' to put physical and mental health in separate boxes. Credit:iStock

Hopefully we all know a GP like this. This is the GP whose books are closed, who is popular because they are thorough, up to date and engaged. This is the GP to whom other doctors take their kids, who sees that the eating disorder affects the bones, that family violence has an impact on a child’s weight gain, that the social isolation of an elderly widower worsens his iron deficiency.

This GP sees that fatigue could be depression or cancer or many other things, and takes the time to find out. This the GP who, when a patient's lip trembles at the end of the blood pressure consultation, goes further to explore a gambling addiction.