Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The federal budget handed down on 8 May this year provided $291.3 million over the next four years for the inclusion of two new attendance items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule from 1 November 2007. This will provide for lengthier consultations between patients with chronic and complex health conditions and the consultant physicians or paediatricians to whom they are referred. Patients with chronic and complex conditions have two or more serious medical conditions simultaneously, resulting in a combined effect—for example, cardiovascular disease and diabetes or osteoarthritis and chronic respiratory disease.

Consultant physicians and paediatricians are the highly trained specialist medical consultants who advise the referring doctor on the patient’s diagnosis and management. They are particularly qualified to treat the diseases identified by the Council of Australian Governments as national health priorities, and which often feature in chronic and complex conditions. The needs of patients with chronic and complex health conditions typically take longer for consultant physicians and paediatricians to investigate, consider and address than do the needs of other patients. Until now this difference has not been reflected in the Medicare Benefits Schedule. The new items 132 and 133 will go a long way in remedying this longstanding and anomalous situation.

These two new attendance items will provide the growing numbers of Australians with chronic and complex conditions unprecedented access to the highly specialised medical care they need for optimum health outcomes. The implications are positive and wide ranging for the patients, their families and their carers and, not least, for consultant physicians and paediatricians.

In recent years, the growth of Australia’s consultant physician and paediatrician workforce has not kept up with the demand for its services. Many positions are unfilled, particularly in regional and rural areas and in the aged care sector. Many training placements are not being taken up. Practising as a consultant physician or paediatrician has become financially unattractive, particularly to potential trainees. The implications for the delivery and efficiency of our health care system over the next decade, and the treatment of our National Health Priorities, are significant.

I would like to acknowledge the work of the Australian Association of Consultant Physicians, the AACP, which represents Australian consultant physicians and paediatricians in economic and workforce matters. In its submission to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Abbott, of 28 September 2006 and subsequent representations to senators and members of this parliament, the AACP made a compelling case for the inclusion of these new attendance items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule as part of a holistic strategy for improving health outcomes for Australians with chronic and complex conditions. It also made a case with regard to the relativity of remuneration for consultant physicians and paediatricians and the attractiveness of training in consultant physician and paediatrician specialties and sub-specialties. I would like to pay particular tribute to the efforts of the AACP President, Dr Leslie Bolitho, the AACP Vice-President, Dr Louis McGuigan, and the AACP Secretary-Treasurer, Dr John Best AO. I must also take this opportunity to publicly note the strong support given over many months on this issue by the health minister, Mr Abbott.

This issue has personal relevance to me as the secretary of the backbench committee on health and ageing, and also as the member for Cowper, an area which has a large proportion of retirees who move to the area because of its many natural beauties. At the same time, this issue has personal relevance to us all. The inclusion of these two new attendance items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule will help to create improved access to specialist health care for all Australians. It will provide incentives for our best and brightest medical graduates to train as consultant physicians and paediatricians, it will promote a regime with a revitalised consultant physician and paediatrician workforce, it will enable many vacancies to be filled, and it will provide great encouragement for our best and brightest to enter this field.

I applaud the inclusion from 1 November 2007 of these two new attendance items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule.