Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is a crisis unfolding in regional Australia: the collapsing access to general practice services. It is not easy to see a GP in the country, and I think we can all agree that your postcode should not determine whether you get health care. Labor is busy spruiking its urgent Medicare clinics, presenting them as a solution to health care, but I have news for this parliament: most people in my electorate will never get access to one. In fact, on health outcomes, people in my electorate of Grey already have some of the worst outcomes in the country. We have the highest rates of diabetes in the country, more than double the national average, we have some of the worst access to health care and we have some of the lowest life expectancy rates, while access to seeing a doctor in my community is getting worse, not better.

Policymakers need to stop playing politics with health care. They know exactly how medical clinics operate and they know the real-world consequences of their policies. For those unaware, GP clinics make money on brief consultations and subsidise the longer, more complex consultations, which often the clinics service at a loss. Labor's new policy is simply putting pressure on the clinics to find ways to fund these essential longer appointments. This was confirmed by the health department in Senate estimates, who also confirmed that it will cost more to see a GP this year and next year. Everyone I speak with, from councils to community members, recognises that there is a massive issue with access to GPs in rural and remote communities, yet, despite this widespread recognition, no-one is doing anything meaningful to make a difference, especially not this Labor government.

Only last month another medical clinic in my electorate closed its doors for good. That closure means the residents of Peterborough now must drive over an hour to see a GP and wait over six weeks to get an appointment. This is unacceptable. Even communities that have traditionally been strong for championing rural practice, like Tumby Bay, Clare and Port Lincoln, are struggling badly. The wait time to see a GP in Tumby Bay right now is a shocking nine weeks.

Then there are locums, the temporary doctors filling in the gaps. While they keep some hospitals running, the widespread use of locums in my electorate only hurts our communities even more. Take Peterborough again. When the local clinic closed, it stopped supplying doctors to the local hospital. So the local health network, the LHN, stepped in and turned to the locum market at a cost of over $4,000 per day per doctor. This situation is costing my own LHN $18 million per year, meaning less money for infrastructure and leaving old, aging and, frankly, unfit hospitals in places like Wallaroo and Port Pirie without the upgrades they so desperately need.

The core issue is that this government is fundamentally undermining the business model. As we have discussed, general practices used to make more money on brief consultations, which would then help subsidise the longer, more complex ones. However, many simple consultations are being diverted. They are going to urgent Medicare clinics, where the government invests $246.50 per patient, or to nurse led clinics, which cost $200 per patient. The simplest cases are even ending up in the emergency department, which costs the taxpayer $692 per patient without an admission. This leaves GPs to deal with longer, more complex consultations. For these, the Medicare rebate is significantly lower per minute, with the government only investing about $40 per patient.

This government proudly talks about its new bulk-billing incentives, but they are merely a small patch on a gaping hole. This government is approaching four years in office and it has delivered nothing but worse outcomes for my community. By contrast, the coalition had a strong record on Medicare. We increased funding every year, from $18.6 billion under the former Labor government to more than $30 billion by FY 2022. We left office with bulk-billing at a record high at 88 per cent. In our last year, 167 million free GP visits were delivered, 61 million more than under the previous Labor government.

Let's not forget about mental health. Labor has cut Medicare subsidised sessions in half, stripping vital support from 370,000 vulnerable Australians and ignoring the advice of experts and even their own review. I like to say that there's better access to mental health care in Mongolia than there is in regional South Australia. To use the PM's own language, it is all BS. Before you can see a GP for free, you need a GP. The truth is that we simply don't have that in our communities.

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