Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. What are the obstacles being presented to the government’s health reform legislative agenda and to the government’s plan to reform dental services?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for the question about health reform. He has had a small taste of investments in health reform in his electorate already with the announcement of the Brisbane Southside GP superclinic. The University of Queensland is involved in that very important service which will be delivered to those communities in Moreton and the surrounds. The Commonwealth has released its historic national health reform plan, which is going to establish the National Health and Hospitals Network, which is funded nationally and run locally. Of course, our plan builds on two years of reform work already undertaken. The Rudd government is very proud of that work, which is already delivering benefits in hospitals, to the workforce, in preventative care in primary care and in dental heath as we speak.

Unfortunately, though, not all of our plans have been implemented, as a number of them have been met with obstruction and game playing by the Liberal Party in the Senate. I would like to go through a short list of shame for the Liberal Party and their approach in the Senate. Early in our term they delayed closing the alcopops loophole for more than 12 months at the bidding of the distilling industry. They tried to block changes to the Medicare levy surcharge which were designed to provide relief to low-income earners. They backed the ophthalmologists when the government tried to adjust rebates for simple procedures. They rejected our sensible reforms to the private health insurance rebate—which, as the Treasurer has already mentioned, is costing the budget $2 billion over the forward estimates. And they are stalling the preventative health agency bill.

Just last week we heard some worrying further reports of the rorting of the chronic disease dental scheme by some dentists and some GPs. Since this scheme began in November 2007 we know of a doctor who has referred approximately 13,000 services and one dentist who has received approximately $4 million in benefits This scheme was originally projected, as the Treasurer has mentioned, to cost $377 million over four years; instead, it is actually costing close to that per year and over $800 million in the last two years alone. The government have attempted to close this flawed scheme twice, but the Liberal Party has blocked both of our attempts. Our proposed alternative scheme would provide around a million dental services and treatments to needy Australians if the Liberals would stop blocking our attempts to implement it.

Again this week in the Senate the coalition gets the chance to pass a landmark nursing and midwifery package. This will provide for the first time Medicare rebates and prescribing rights under the PBS for our hard-working midwives and highly skilled nurse practitioners. We know that the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow health minister are anti-nurse. They have not agreed to pass this legislation. They have been delaying it at every turn, and if they did support nurses, they would have supported the passage of this important piece of legislation through the Senate by now. I highlight not only that this landmark reform is being delayed and mucked around by those opposite but also that, while on 1 July we would for the first time ever have been introducing a Commonwealth funded insurance package for midwives, that cannot happen if this legislation is not passed this week. It will be the Liberal Party who are being anti-nurse and anti-midwife by blocking that legislation. We need it to pass this week. It is the opportunity to show that you are not anti-nurse. We call on the Liberal Party to support this legislation, allow the insurance product for midwives to be passed and stop blocking these important reforms for thousands of nurses and midwives across the country.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the minister aware of the Rohan McClymont case last week, where the emergency patient waited with a leg broken in two places for nearly a day before a Flying Doctor or aerial ambulance CasEvac could be provided, or a similar case two years before involving suspected serious head and back injuries of Livia Katter that entailed a 16-hour wait? These cases were at Hughenden and Richmond with closed down operating theatres, leaving a population of over 3½ thousand nearly 300 kilometres from their nearest medical facility.

In light of this and the internal Queensland Health papers indicating the economy and ‘outcomes efficacy’ of closing over 100 Queensland country hospitals—proposals already mooted at Babinda, Atherton and Mareeba—and the downgrading of a dozen other hospitals to, at best, medical aid posts, could the minister assure those outside metropolitan Queensland that the federal government’s health plan will not involve any hospital closures or downgrades, and that all existing hospitals and the at present bare-bone service will be maintained at current or improved levels?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for this question because it is a very real issue for regional communities, who can rest assured that there is not a single thing in our plan which will require the closure of any hospital across the country. In fact, quite to the contrary, what this plan will do is see the Commonwealth step up to shoulder the major burden of responsibility for funding hospital services. When you look not only at the extra funding of hospital services but also the autonomy that we are seeking to give to local communities to be able to make decisions which are closer to home—whether it is in Mt Isa or Cloncurry or in the examples that the member for Kennedy used—so that services can be planned within very vast but often not very populated regions, it will make sure that health services can be delivered to communities when and where they need them.

Add this part of the package that was announced 10 days ago to the very important package which was announced today, which is particularly targeting the shortage of both GPs and medical specialists in rural and regional Australia, and add on top of that the rural health incentives that were in last year’s budget and come online on 1 July, and you can see that there is a lot of good news for regional Australia. I understand that it is a lot of good news that has been long time coming. It will take a lot of effort and energy from people on this side of House, and from our doctors, nurses and local administrators across the country, to make sure that these incentives are taken advantage of and that we are able to plan decent services in communities like the examples that have been raised by the member for Kennedy.

I am very proud of how this package actually secures funding for the first time in a long time, with the Commonwealth shouldering the vast burden of responsibility for that. We are prepared to step into that gap. We are prepared to make sure that regional Queensland, regional New South Wales, regional Western Australia, regional South Australia and all of the regional communities across the country actually get the services that they deserve. It is important to make sure that they can get services outside hospital and it is important to make sure they can access services in a hospital when they are needed. This plan makes that possible and sustainable into the future.