Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak tonight about our healthcare system and, particularly, what has happened under this Albanese Labor government over the past two years in my electorate. At the heart of our health system in Australia is our local GP and the services provided at those local clinics. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis a Department of Health report has now revealed what Australians have known for two years: that the number of GPs bulk-billing is not increasing, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Prime Minister claim; and also, worryingly, that Australians are not visiting their doctor because of the cost. In my electorate of Hughes, in southern and south-western Sydney, this has been obvious for a while. We are seeing the declining wealth of Australians—caused by the cost-of-living crisis—now impacting their health.

Media reports today confirmed that a trip to the doctor now leaves Australians almost $45 out of pocket on average—that's up 5.5 per cent compared to a year ago. The number of visits to GPs has declined nationally by almost 2.5 million over the last year. This was on the department's own website. We know the importance of regular health checks and the integral role that a GP plays in monitoring the overall health of his or her patients. The reduction in the bulk-billing rates has been attributed yet again to cost-of-living pressures. I don't blame GPs for this at all. Dr Higgins, the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, today said that costs are increasing for GPs because they are facing the same cost-of-living pressures as everyone else, and that most GPs are, in fact, small-business owners and so they are also suffering from the same cost-of-doing-business crisis that has afflicted all of the other small businesses across our country.

The people I speak to my local community have raised the declining rates of bulk-billing across my community for two years, and research has now confirmed that this is indeed the case. There are now only four practices that serve my electorate that still bulk-bill entirely—that is only 16 per cent. Of the remaining—more than 20 in total—around half have changed their way of billing over the past two years. Doctors within my local community blame the drop in GP visits on cost-of-living pressures. One of the GPs with whom I have met, Dr Rebekah Hoffman at Kirrawee Family Medical Practice, has said there are almost no bulk-billing or low-billing clinics in southern Sydney. She said she's seeing more families trying to squeeze multiple children or family members into a single appointment. She said, 'What I'm hearing from my patients is, it's the cost.'

I also want to draw attention now to a particular practice within my electorate that has been significantly disadvantaged by this government—Wattle Grove Family Medical Practice at Holsworthy. I'm glad to say I was conducted by Dr John Stanford, who is at that practice, and I thank Dr John for his advocacy. There are more than 3,100 patients that attend this practice, many of whom are veterans' families, as well as veterans. The predominant health issues dealt with by doctors at this practice are mental health and postnatal depression. Presently, there are three doctors and one registrar to serve this busy area. However, due to a bureaucratic departmental decision to reclassify Holsworthy as 'inner metropolitan' rather than its former classification as 'outer metropolitan', this practice is now going to lose its registrar this month, with a replacement highly unlikely. So this practice is going to lose 25 per cent of its doctors. What that will do to the wait times and what that will do to increasing the stress on already overworked GPs in this practice is devastating. It's also devastating to the people of Holsworthy, Wattle Grove, Voyager Point and Pleasure Point who attend this practice. I've written to the minister about this, but he refuses to do anything about it. I say that this is yet again another failure of this government on health for Australians.

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