Why consider GPMG as a Management Solution?

GP’s have been besieged by a survival type mentality for many years, accepting the route of least resistance and believing that the various restrictive measures that are now dominating our worlds are essential for our existence. This belief system is not conducive to furthering the cause of private healthcare.

As GP’s we are the supposed gatekeepers of the medical profession. Yet, by comparison our track record speaks of poor performance. In spite of floundering state healthcare and the rampant AIDS epidemic, some medical aids, hospital groups and pharmaceutical companies managed to earn massive profits and shared huge dividends amongst their managers and shareholders. Well done to them for being so creative and innovative with their business philosophy. It is obvious that businessmen regularly outperform us GP’s when it comes to business strategy.

There are many players with their hands in the cookie jar. For every rand a patient spends on medical aid, GP's earn 6 %, medical specialists 7 %, hospitals 30.4%, medication 15% and radiologists and pathologists combined 9%. Non-healthcare costs (NHCC) comprise 23% of the annual budget, spent on brokers' commissions, administration costs and profits. Like the medical funds, we also have the expenses of premises, staff and IT systems. How can one then justify that the funds earn more than all the consulting and surgical doctors combined? Expecting us now to enter ICD-10 codes on all our prescriptions and request forms have increased our workload to include administrative duties for which we are not remunerated, the exact tasks that earn the funds 23%.

To explain how the situation developed we must refrain from using emotional terms like “we were crooked and cheated”. Amongst business strategists we are the soft targets. We must be quite honest and admit that we have been rather insipid and uninvolved in the past. To set things right, we seem to have chosen another soft target– the patient, appealing to them to feel sorry for us and help us plead our case against the medical funds. This strategy is clearly questionable – most patients already believe that doctors are rich, money grabbing professionals who care more for their pockets than the needs of the patient. The truth is that we need to show a bit more backbone and do things for ourselves.

As GP’s, our only source of “business representation” thus far has been conducted via the standard IPA. With the insolvency of GPNet many concerns have come to the forefront: 

How naive and vulnerable are we in reality as GP’s within an IPA structure when it comes to hard core business, especially when pitted against the skills of teams of successful business managers competing for the same healthcare budget? 

It’s time that we stop making excuses and start believing in ourselves. It is possible to aim for less restrictive and more ambitious goals, but not if we keep on accepting the route of minimal effort and least resistance. It is possible to become more obstinate and defiant when dealing with medical funds and administrators, but only if we are steered or supported by strong leadership.

GPMG, short for “GP Management Group” offers you all the basic functions of a standard IPA. In addition, however, it also offers you the opportunity to pursue and support a different business philosophy, become more pro-actively involved with navigating your own future, elect your leadership based on entrepreneurial skills, rather than organisational abilities, enlarge our world as GP’s by forming partnerships with other likeminded organisations and gain access to the opinions of their strategic planners, their resources and their media channels. Only if we learn lessons from our past mistakes and plan for a brighter future with a clear long term vision in mind, will we be able to break the restrictive hold that others have gained over us.

At GPMG we have initiated the following campaigns:

Become a member of an organisation that you can help structure and steer, one that will proudly serve private enterprise as well as further the standards of healthcare. If we compete against businessmen for our slice of the healthcare pie, it’s high time that we start behaving like them.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Conrad A Smith (Douglasdale)

More about GPMG:

GPMG or “GP Management Group” is a new independent company with no external ownership.

ALL the below benefits/services are included in the monthly R262.20 (VAT Incl) subscription:

• GPMG employs the services of two existing organisations (HealthMan (Pty) Ltd and E2 Solutions (Pty) Ltd) on a contractual basis to advise on and manage all routine operational tasks, as well as provide us with additional services. (Both companies are currently rendering similar services to many of our colleagues, i.e. the gynaecologists, ophthalmologists, surgeons, paediatricians, psychiatrists, etc.)
• Each participating doctor will purchase one share in GPMG at the nominal cost of R262.20 and thereafter the monthly subscription will be R262.20
• The Board of Directors will comprise of practising GP’s that have been nominated and duly elected
• The Board will out-source all operational issues at a predetermined cost; these costs are fixed for twelve months, and will be renegotiated on an annual basis.
• The advantage of this model is that GPMG does not have to invest money or resources in staff, premises and equipment, and therefore behaves as a ‘virtual’ organisation.