Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How many of the Albanese Labor government's 50 Medicare urgent care clinics have now opened, how are they helping to strengthen Medicare and how is the government working cooperatively with states and territories to improve health services after a decade of cuts and neglect?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, on indulgence, may I add my welcome to Maree McCabe and thank her for her long leadership at Dementia Australia, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of families who are impacted by dementia. It's one of Australia's most important patient organisations.

I also want to thank the member for McEwen for this important question, because, as he knows, we did promise for 50 Medicare urgent care clinics to be opened over the course of last year. Instead, we delivered 58. They are open seven days a week with extended hours, are available for walk-ins and, importantly, are fully bulk-billed. We plan to deliver even more this year. Our dear friend and colleague Peta Murphy promised to deliver an urgent care clinic in Frankston—one of a series of commitments that she made and delivered for better health care in her community. Since 30 June, that clinic has delivered more than 12,000 services to the people of Dunkley. More than one in three of those services have been delivered to kids under the age of 15, providing an option for anxious parents who need urgent care for their kids out of hours, on the weekends or simply when they can't get into their normal GP—like Amanda, who wrote to us and said: 'I'm so grateful for this service. I took my two-year-old for review today when I couldn't get an appointment. She was seen straight away. They gave wonderful and timely care for my boy, who is now on the mend.'

It's better urgent care when and where people need it, but it's also an option that means people don't have to go to the hospital. More than 60 per cent of patients attending the Frankston clinic say they would otherwise have had to go to the Frankston emergency department, like Paul, who said: 'We really needed attention when most of the GPs were closed for a closed head injury. It kept us from having to visit the Frankston emergency department. Thank you.' That's why, as the member for McEwen points out, our government has worked so closely with states and territories to ensure that these urgent care clinics are located where they'll have the most benefit for hospital systems.

Of course, the Leader of the Opposition had a different idea for relieving pressure on our hospital EDs. It wasn't a new model of care. It wasn't a network of new clinics. Instead, he announced in his first budget as health minister that he wanted states to start charging a fee at the emergency department, fitting out all of our triage statements in the 750 public hospitals around Australia with EFTPOS machines. That was his idea of relieving pressure on EDs. It's fit for a man, of course, who wanted to introduce a GP tax as well.

We are proud of the legacy Peta Murphy led and the measures that we've put in place to make it easier and cheaper to see your doctor in the electorate of Dunkley. We're determined to protect those measures from this man.