Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for his question. At the last election he and the rest of the Labor team promised the Australian people that, if elected, we would strengthen Medicare through a boost to bulk-billing, through cheaper medicines and through a network of urgent care clinics. We've been busy on this side delivering on that promise. In less than a year our 58 urgent care clinics have already delivered care to 425,000 Australians—all fully bulk-billed, one in four of them under the age of 15, one out of four services delivered on the weekend when we know people can't get in to their GP, and we are taking real pressure off our hospital system.

The member for Lyons and I were at one of those clinics in Hobart last month and we were told by the operator that 80 per cent of their patients said that, if the clinic wasn't open, they'd have had to go down the road to the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department. The member for Lyons and I were there to announce the $28 million Strengthening Medicare package out of last month's budget. The package includes more funding for the four terrific urgent care clinics already operating in Tasmania, helping them care for more Tasmanians, and also includes funding for a fifth clinic in Tasmania, in the Bridgewater area, servicing not just Bridgewater itself but surrounding communities like Brighton and the northern suburbs of Hobart. I pay credit to the member for Lyons, who has been a relentless advocate for this clinic in his electorate.

The Tasmanian package will also deliver better support to older patients, helping them avoid having to go to hospital in the first place, if possible, but if they do have to go to hospital allowing them to be discharged as soon as clinically possible. This is not just good for them; we know it will relieve much-needed pressure on the hospital system as well. The member for Lyons knows this and the government knows the Tasmanian health system is under real pressure, which is why our Strengthening Medicare program is just so important. It is not just urgent care clinics; in just five months the GP bulk-billing rate in Tasmania has climbed above five per cent, delivering tens of thousands of additional free visits to the GP—the best result of any state in the Federation. Tens of thousands of Tasmanians are benefiting from cheaper medicines as well.

We know there is more to do but we are starting to repair the damage from the Leader of the Opposition's horror health budget of 10 years ago, when he wanted to cut $50 billion from hospitals, abolish bulk-billing altogether and jack up the price of medicines by up to $5 a script. That's not the Labor way because the DNA of Labor includes Medicare at its heart. That's why we're working so hard to strengthen it.

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