Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Health Insurance Amendment (General Practitioners and Quality Assurance) Bill 2020. In doing so, I wish to very strongly echo and support the comments of my colleague, the member for McMahon and shadow minister for health.

I represent an electorate in the outer south-western suburbs of Sydney, an electorate that for many decades has suffered from difficulties in attracting a general practitioner workforce and which for many years has called out for better health resources. The problems that many outer metropolitan, rural and regional electorates face is a very ad hoc approach to general practitioner recruitment and to primary care. From the conservative parties we have seen nothing but this ad hoc approach. That is really echoed in a number of different areas, including the absolutely chaotic rollout of the My Health Record; the extremely-difficult-to-understand and difficult-to-interpret general practitioner reward system for rural and regional areas; and the poor health care that many people in disadvantaged areas are facing, and the lack of response from this government and previous conservative governments to this. One has to ask why this health legislation has been so long in coming.

Labor, of course, will be supporting this legislation and the amendment moved by the member for McMahon because it does aim to simplify the administration of payments through Medicare to some general practitioners. But it has taken years for the government to recognise this and to do something about it. While the legislation itself is largely non-controversial, it is very important, particularly in the midst of a global health pandemic. It's now more important than ever that people engage with the healthcare system and are able to visit their general practitioner should the need arise.

As a paediatrician, a parent and a politician I'm often astounded about the lack of continuity of care that people experience when engaging with the healthcare system. A person's GP is a person's primary giver of health care. People should be able to have a longstanding relationship with a general practitioner and the general practitioner should be able to have an in-depth understanding of their patient's needs and individual circumstances.

The evolution of a digital health record is one step towards ensuring that patients are able to have some semblance of continuous care. It enables their medical records and essential health history to be shared with healthcare providers in a timely, accurate and efficient manner. It's a shame that the rollout of the government's system was so tumultuous, but I believe we must persist. Data, after all, is the future of health care. I acknowledge the difficulties faced by many families in accessing continuous care when they move home, have career changes or live in outer metropolitan, rural and regional areas where there's no continuity of care through a GP staying in the same practice for a continuous period of time.

I'm fortunate to have close relationships with a number of my present and former medical colleagues. I'm well aware of the issues they face on a daily basis. This legislation aims to make it a little easier to maintain their evidence of continuing professional education—a little less paperwork for them. The bill takes some steps towards addressing some of the administrative issues that they face as a medical professional being recognised as a specialist general practitioner for Medicare purposes. It will make it a little easier in aligning Medicare eligibility for the GP with the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme registration requirements.

Each and every year specialist GPs must make a declaration to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency that they have met their CPD requirements. With a busy GP and a busy practice this takes significant time. This bill seeks to remove the present requirements of specialist GPs to further register with Services Australia and will instead tie their eligibility for higher Medicare rebates to the existing NRAS system.

Our public healthcare system is a very good one, but it is far from perfect. One area where the government has been particularly poor is in the coordination and delivery of primary care general practitioner services to disadvantaged areas. It's okay if you live in Mosman, Toorak or some of the more affluent areas in other states, but if you live in outer metropolitan, rural and regional Australia, it's often very difficult for people to access appropriate continuous general practitioner care. There has been little formal planning by the government to make sure that the same levels of health care apply to all Australians, not just those from wealthier areas. This is a great shame. A gap is emerging between the working poor and the elite. This is well demonstrated by the current coronavirus pandemic if one looks at where the outbreaks are and where people have had difficulty accessing care. It's true in rural, regional and outer metropolitan areas.

We must take steps to strengthen the public health system and our beloved Medicare system. Ensuring that medical professionals have less bureaucratic hurdles to constantly navigate is one such way that we can work towards retaining trained professionals in this area, but it is important that there is a logical and appropriate plan for delivering primary health care to all Australians. This is something that this government does lack. It needs to lift its game.

I commend the legislation to the House. I thank the member for McMahon for his terrific contributions in this area and also for his second reading amendment. I will have more to say at a later date about primary care in Australia.

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