Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How are the health services improving due to the government’s Health and Hospitals Fund? What is planned for the next round of the fund and how has this investment been received?

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

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. I know—having visited Corangamite often and with the member for Corio—that as a regional member the member for Corangamite’s constituents have been very appreciative of investments to date in their area. The GP superclinic is going very well in his electorate. Not very long ago, I was with both the member for Corangamite and the member for Corio announcing the Victorian government’s allocation through our COAG funding for the redevelopment of the Belmont rehabilitation centre, for new beds at Geelong Hospital. I know that the investments in the Deakin Medical School, for example, have been vital in bringing new students to the region, who then have experience in working in hospitals like Colac and elsewhere in the community, and in providing the services and the infrastructure that are needed in the community.

The reason I have been particularly asked this question today—and the member for Lyne had some prescience yesterday in asking a similar question—is that today the Prime Minister and I, along with the minister for regional development, announced the opening of the new health and hospitals funding process, with a particular focus on rural and regional Australia. Up to $1.8 billion is available. Four applications will be assessed by our independent health and hospitals board, chaired by Bill Ferris. Applications are open as of today and the guidelines and details are available on the website. Many constituents, represented by members on both sides of this House, will have looked previously at the guidelines and will be familiar with the basic structure. But there is now additional guidance that puts a particular focus on those projects that are going to deliver services to rural and regional communities and also provide a setting for more health professionals to be trained in areas where there are severe shortages. Of course, we will look at doing things in an innovative way. So projects that are training people across disciplines, or doctors and nurses and allied health professionals who are working together or looking to use the e-health system in a new way into the future will be particularly looked at favourably. With some input from members who were consulted on these guidelines, of course those projects need to have strong local support for them to be able to be supported by our government.

We are very excited that this is an opportunity for people to look at doing things differently in rural and regional Australia. But I remind those members who represent more urban electorates that the investments we have made to date have invested significantly in the city areas as well. The whole health reform investments mean that, in a few short years, 60 per cent of all capital funding projects for hospitals whether in city or regional areas will be met by the Commonwealth. This particular round will turbocharge—a word that I have, I think, stolen from the member for Lyne—investments in rural and regional Australia. This means that projects that are currently underway, like those in Narrabri, in New England, in Tasmania, at Nepean Hospital, in Rockhampton or in Launceston will then be able to be added to what we expect will be a very large number of positive applications, which we will look at and assess in the context of next year’s budget.