Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's a growing problem that we've got in central Victoria: we are facing a new GP shortage because of repeated government policy failures. The health minister and the government will tell you that bulk billing rates are up, even in the electorate of Bendigo. This is true. But what the government doesn't tell you is the increasing gap fee that patients are now having to pay for general practice services. We are now left with only a handful of clinics that don't charge a gap fee. Because they don't charge a gap fee, they are now struggling to attract doctors to work for them. They are struggling to recruit more GPs, required to keep their practices open on weekends—in particular, the Healthworks practices that service a very low socioeconomic area of my electorate in Kangaroo Flat and Golden Square. The manager and owner of these practices, Dr Alan Hall, has come out publicly to say we need to be put back on the District of Workforce Shortage list, the list which allows them to recruit overseas doctors to work in Bendigo. These are the people who are willing to work in clinics where they don't get to charge a gap fee. I've written to the health minister on several occasions as well, supporting the GPs in my electorate and the clinics, calling for Bendigo to be added back to the District of Workforce Shortage list.