Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for health. How will the Albanese Labor government's Medicare urgent care clinics make it easier for Australians to see a doctor after decades of cuts and neglect?

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

I thank my friend the member for Newcastle for that question. She is part of the formidable Hunter Labor team along with the member for Shortland, the member for Hunter and the member for Paterson. I can tell you: they hunt as a pack, relentlessly arguing for better services, for more jobs and for targeted help with the cost of living in their amazing community, and they are terrific advocates for our broader plan for a stronger Medicare. They made the case for the reinstatement of funding to the outstanding after-hours GP services in that region, GP access—funding that was cut by the Liberals. I can say that, as a result of their advocacy, that service is now back up and running at full tilt.

They're also fierce supporters of our broader Strengthening Medicare plan. More bulk-billing services is a critical issue in Newcastle, in the Hunter. More cheaper medicines is something they've argued for very strongly—and that network of urgent care clinics that the member for Newcastle referred to. The Cessnock urgent care clinic was one of the 58 clinics we opened as part of our election commitment last year, and the member for Hunter has told us that almost 7,000 members of his community have already been seen at that clinic—the majority of whom would otherwise have had to spend hours waiting at the emergency department at the Cessnock Hospital. Across the network of those 58 urgent care clinics, in less than 12 months 494,000 patients have already been seen—a third of them kids under the age of 15, a third of them on the weekend and every single one of them fully bulk-billed, seen free of charge. That is not just taking pressure off the local hospitals but delivering real help with the cost of living.

But we know we can do more. That's why I was back in the region with the Hunter Labor team announcing a second urgent care clinic for the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region—again, to take pressure off the wonderful John Hunter Hospital. It is part of 29 further additional urgent care clinics we announced as part of the budget last month. I also announced a second clinic in the Gold Coast, around Southport, to take pressure off the busiest emergency department in the nation, in that part of Australia. Last week I announced, with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, an urgent care clinic in the Fairfield region to take pressure off the very busy Fairfield Hospital—and there will be more announcements, I can guarantee you that.

Our focus on making Medicare stronger and health care cheaper could not be more different from the focus of those opposite. It could not be more different from their record of making health care more expensive and that blatant disregard for the cost of health care that we again see running right through their plan to push up power prices through nuclear reactors. (Time expired)