Veterans are being forced to pay for healthcare that should be free as GPs opt out

Summerscales is one of the diminishing number of GPs accepting veteran white cards, which entitles the holder to treatment for injuries and conditions the department of veterans affairs (DVA) accepts were incurred during service.

As Guardian Australia revealed on Monday, veterans have been receiving letters from their GP saying they no longer accept the white card because the DVA rebates are not high enough to cover the cost of providing often complex health services.

Some clinics are also no longer accepting the gold card, which entitles a veteran or their dependant, widow or widower to DVA rebates for all clinically necessary health care needs and conditions, whether they are related to war service or not.

An army veteran of 30 years service, Summerscales feels compelled to accept the cards because she knows better than most the complexity of health needs veterans face. They often require long consults and experience physical and mental health conditions.

That was enough information for Summerscales to know he was involved in the 1996 Blackhawk accident, when two Australian Army Blackhawk helicopters collided in the Townsville Field training area, resulting in 18 deaths.

She is concerned that if veterans are privately billed, or bulk billed through Medicare if they can find a bulk-billing doctor, data on veteran health conditions normally collected by the DVA through white and gold card claims will be lost.

Clive Buckingham, a gold card holder and a Vietnam veteran, recently went to his GP of three years in Bundaberg, Queensland, for numerous concerns including shingles, swelling of his ankles and numbness in his toes and leg. The GP told Buckingham that all of these symptoms were just a result of medication, and to come back in one year if the symptoms persisted.

Buckingham then told his GP that he had a gold card, thinking this would cover all of his health costs and prompt the GP to provide the health care Buckingham was asking for.

Cena gave up psychological treatment.

Guardian Australia has contacted the RSL for comment.

Summerscales says she fears the inability to receive adequate medical care will drive up suicide rates.

* Name has been changed