Victorian Premier John Brumby on Tuesday called for bulk-billing GPs to be installed at every major Australian public hospital to free up over-stretched emergency departments.
The proposal was contained in a 10-point Brumby plan for national health reform, released on Tuesday at a Melbourne health conference.
Brumby also called on the federal government for an extra $1 billion a year for health care and said the GP plan would save millions of dollars wasted on non-emergency hospital cases.
"The extra cost to the system ... is more than $50 million a year - that's in Victoria," Brumby said.
"Multiply that Australia-wide it's $200 million a year ... of money that could be better spent and that's what the proposition is all about."
Under the proposal, all major hospitals would have at least one bulk billing GP or a GP clinic on site to treat patients with non-emergency complaints, including sprains and flu.
But the AMA says these cases represent only 10 per cent of emergency department patients and consume just one per cent of resources.
AMA president Dr Rosanna Capolingua said Brumby's proposal was well intentioned but had been trialled unsuccessfully in other states.
"Ninety-nine per cent of their work is looking after patients that aren't GP-type patients, so even after you take that one per cent out it's not going to make a huge difference to emergency departments," Dr Capolingua said.
She said only more beds and resources could reduce the enormous pressure on public hospitals.
Victorian opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said the government was clutching at straws to make up for its mismanagement of emergency departments and a lack of hospital beds.
"There are no new ideas, there's no vision. All this is is a grab for more money from the commonwealth from a government that is not performing in health," Shardey said.
The Victorian government's recommendations will form part of its submission to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission.
The commission is charged with writing the new five-year Australian Health Care Agreement (AHCA), which sets funding parameters between the commonwealth, states and territories.
The current agreement is due to expire at the end of this month.
The AMA is calling for an initial $3 billion extra funding up front, followed by an indexed increase of eight per cent a year.
