Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingston for her concise, punchy question and for her ongoing advocacy of the health needs of the southern suburbs of Adelaide. I have had many a discussion with the member for Kingston about the health needs of southern Adelaide. She has been a strong supporter of the mental health reform process. I greatly appreciated her counsel and advice, as one of the very few, if not the only, professional psychologist in this parliament. Her advice about the better targeting of primary care services and youth mental health services was incredibly valuable to me in developing the package that was presented at the last budget.

She has also outlined some of the many advantages that the residents of the southern suburbs of Adelaide—the electors of Kingston—have received from the mental health reform process broadly and also from the specific investments in the acute care sector, particularly the Flinders Medical Centre, the major tertiary hospital in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, which has received $7.2 million for a new acute medical unit and $10 million for a general upgrade. We know that patient activity in that hospital has been increasing significantly for an extended period of time. Flinders has also benefited from the general emergency department capacity management system upgrade in the South Australian major hospital system, again funded through the Rudd and Gillard governments.

As the member for Kingston has outlined, a GP superclinic, in partnership with the South Australian government through its GP Plus program has been developed in the southern suburbs near the Noarlunga Hospital as well as a range of other community health and community mental health services. I was at the sod turning some time ago with the member for Kingston and the South Australian Minister for Health. The southern suburbs of Adelaide are one of the 10 areas where a new headspace service will be built during this year. I want to pay tribute particularly to the southern GP division down there, which I have dealt with on many occasions. It is an incredibly professional outfit and I know that it will play a very central role in the development of the headspace service there.

The member for Kingston also outlined the importance that this government attaches to preventative health. We know that of the more than $100 billion that is spent in this country on health every year, only about two per cent is spent of prevention and the vast bulk of that on immunisation programs. That is why we have set up the Preventive Health Agency, which finally passed through the parliament. That is why we agreed with COAG, in 2008, the largest ever preventive health agreement to the tune of about $872 million. We know that prevention and early intervention not only is much better for patients but also relieves a larger cost impact on the healthcare system later on if things are not picked up early.

The government's National Bowel Cancer Screening Program is a wonderful example of that approach. We know that bowel cancer kills almost 4,000 Australians every year, the second highest cancer killer in this country. We also know, though, that less than 40 per cent of bowel cancers are detected early, maximising the opportunities for treatment, intervention and therefore recovery. In 2008, as the member for Kingston well knows, there was an allocation in that budget of over $87.4 million over three years, offering free screening for up to 2.5 million Australians who turned 50, 55 and 65 years of age between 2008 and 2010. In 2008, that screening program led to 120 bowel cancer cases being detected, along with 334 suspected cancers and more than 5,000 potentially precancerous conditions also being detected.

This year we have followed up on that commitment with $138.7 million over four years to continue the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. Approximately 3.4 million Australians will be offered free screening over the next four years through that program. The program intends to commence sending out invitations in July this year—next month—to people turning 50, 55 or 65 from 1 January this year. I thank the member for Kingston for her ongoing interest in health reform and her interest in this program in particular.

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