Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My community on the Central Coast of New South Wales is in the middle of a health crisis, but it's not a crisis that's COVID related. What people are facing on the north end of the coast is a severe shortage of general practitioners. This is a crisis largely of the government's own making, and it's one they've presided over for too long. It's never been harder or more expensive to see a GP on the Central Coast than it is now, and I say that having first worked as a pharmacist in my community in the late 1990s. That's because of the government's refusal to recognise our community as a priority. This has made it harder for local practices to recruit and retain GPs, or replace GPs who retire or move. As a result, we've seen a severe shortage of GPs in our community, and the impacts on locals and our healthcare system have been devastating, with people waiting weeks for routine appointments, practices closing their books, retiring GPs who can't be replaced and people ending up in emergency departments in hospitals which are already stretched and at times buckling under the strain. We're three years into a global pandemic, so you would think health care would be a top priority for this government, but clearly that's not the case in the community that I represent.

People in the north end of the coast have been calling for the government to fix the GP crisis for years, but all the government has done is sit on its hands. Then, at the end of last week, the government made a surprise announcement. After years of inaction and on the eve of an election, they decided to make Wyong-Gorokan and Toukley-Budgewoi priority areas for GPs. While this is welcome news—and I thank every local person, GP and community advocate who has stood up and fought for this change—and it's a great relief to many people in my community, it is long overdue and doesn't go far enough. The Morrison government has still failed to recognise the severe shortage of GPs across the rest of the Central Coast. There are practices in The Entrance, Bateau Bay and other pockets of the coast that desperately need more GPs. They should be a priority, too, but they're still being overlooked. It's only because of, as I mentioned, the incredible efforts of our community advocates and doctors that the government has even taken this step to start to address the GP crisis. But it's not enough.

GPs in my community on the Central Coast are stretched—GPs like Dr Con, who runs Oceanside Private Practice at The Entrance. Dr Con has served our community for 12 years. He has seven empty consulting rooms in his practice because there are no GPs to fill them, while each day he's turning away people who are looking for a GP. He said to me recently, 'We've been trying to recruit GPs, but, because of the rules that the government put in place, we could not obtain any GPs at all. The current number of GPs that have been trained in Australia is insufficient to meet the needs of our communities. We need to have more options on the table to be able to recruit GPs.' This sentiment is echoed by GPs and practice managers across our community.

This government may not be prepared to act, but Labor will. We have a plan to end the GP crisis on the coast and in other communities like mine across Australia. Unlike the government, we will make the entire Central Coast a priority area so local practices can recruit from a larger pool of doctors, including overseas trained doctors, so locals can get the care they need, close to home, when they need it. We'll also make it easier to see a GP for thousands of other Australians in the outer suburbs and the regions by recognising them as priority areas, too.

In the middle of a pandemic, access to health care is vital. We understand that. We know that, the further you live outside a big city, the less access you're likely to have and the worse your health outcomes will be. We understand that GPs are essential and underpin health care in communities across Australia, working hand in hand with allied health professionals, with nurses and midwives. That's why we initiated the Senate inquiry into GP services in outer metropolitan, regional and rural Australia. Although this inquiry is ongoing, the evidence presented so far is stark. It's made it very clear that there is a chronic shortage of general practitioners across the Central Coast. We have listened to doctors and patients in my community and we'll make sure that practices can recruit the GPs that they desperately need and that people need to see.

When we made this commitment last week at Oceanside Private Practice, alongside Dr Con, he said to me, 'This will enable us to have an option to hire new GPs to serve the community, so that, when people are sick, they have access to care. With a growing population on the Central Coast, we need more GPs. This announcement is the greatest news for the Central Coast, for GPs and for the community.'

This government has failed the people on the Central Coast. Clearly, it doesn't consider the health care of people living in the outer suburbs of the region a priority, but Labor do and we'll act. We believe every Australian deserves quality care close to home, no matter where they live.