Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government's 2024 budget continues to deliver better health services, strengthening and expanding Medicare and rolling out cheaper medicines. Under the budget, nearly $70 million is invested for four new MRI machines in Blair, expanding affordable access to imaging services. Lumus Imaging Ipswich and Exact Radiology clinics in Ipswich will receive their MRI licences in 2025 and I-MED Radiology at St Andrew's Ipswich Private Hospital and Queensland X-Ray in Springfield will receive their licences in 2027. This means these radiology clinics will be able to provide Medicare billed MRI services, saving patients money and making MRIs more accessible to our community. We've nearly tripled the number of MRI Medicare funded services since we came to office. Nearly 74,000 residents received nearly 224,000 pathology services just last year in the Blair electorate. We're making sure that pathology tests stay bulk billed by indexing the Medicare rebates for common medical tests, thereby reducing waiting times and catching health problems sooner.

In addition to this, we've created and built the Ipswich Medicare Urgent Care Clinic at Riverlink in Ipswich, a huge success, with nearly 6,000 visits since it was opened in August last year, making it easier for local patients to access bulk-billing care close to home. This has reduced out-of-pocket expenses for people in the Ipswich region and also takes pressure off the Ipswich Hospital emergency department.

Just last week I opened the new Ipswich Medicare Mental Health Centre, formerly known as Head to Health, a commitment I got from the Hon. Emma McBride, the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, when she was the shadow assistant minister before the last election. This is a commitment to free mental health information, services and support without the need for an appointment. All services will offer immediate support and follow-up care to people presenting in crisis, as well as short to medium care for people with moderate to severe mental health needs. The new Medicare Mental Health Centre is located at level 1 of the Eats Building in the Nicholas Street Precinct in the Ipswich CBD. The Ipswich service is the third Medicare mental health centre in Queens, with services already being operated in Kingaroy and Townsville. Any person can go to the centre themselves or call 1800595212 to speak to a trained professional or receive a referral to a suitable mental health service. This is critical to support my local region, and I want to thank the local PHN, of which Lucille Chalmers is the CEO and Dr Tony Bayliss is the chair, and everyone associated with creating this wonderful centre for the people of Ipswich.