House debates

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Private Members' Business

Health Care

6:08 pm

Photo of Mike FreelanderMike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) under this Government, out-of-pocket expense for patients accessing healthcare have soared;

(b) out of hospital, out-of-pocket costs for patients accessing a general practitioner have increased by 37.18 per cent Australia-wide since the Coalition came into office;

(c) out of hospital, out-of-pocket costs for patients accessing specialists have increased by 54.14 per cent;

(d) out of hospital, out-of-pocket costs for patients accessing anaesthetics have increased by 51.84 per cent; and

(e) out of hospital, out-of-pocket costs for patients accessing radiotherapy and therapeutic nuclear medicine have increased by 195.96 per cent;

(2) condemns the Government for allowing out-of-pocket health expenses to soar; and

(3) calls on the Government to act urgently to address the inequity of access to high level healthcare in Australia.

This is a motion that is very close to my heart. I am very pleased to see the member for Flynn in here today to speak on the motion.

The latest data released by the Department of Health painted a pretty harrowing story about the state of health care in this country. I want to make it clear that the data has been updated since I originally tabled this motion, and it paints a very poor picture. In layman's terms, health care is becoming increasingly unobtainable for many in our society. That's reflected in the health statistics, showing huge differences in morbidity and mortality between the inner-city metropolitan, outer metropolitan and rural and regional areas. I've spoken on numerous occasions about the great divide increasing across Australian society in terms of health care, and also about how the disadvantaged and those who reside in the regions face barriers that do not exist for those who are privileged or who reside in the inner cities.

This is very close to my heart because as a medical student I saw the Whitlam government introduce Medibank because of the huge inequities that had developed in health care in Australia at that time. This, of course, was destroyed by the Fraser Liberal government. I then saw the Hawke government introduce Medicare to the great benefit of Australian society in terms of providing equitable health care across Australia. In fact, I started my private practice in the same week that Medicare was established in this country. Medicare was founded on a very simple notion: all Australians, no matter their background, would be afforded access to quality health care. Now, unfortunately, its universality is at risk. The fact that the coalition has allowed the cost of health care to soar for Australians is a terrible indictment on their ability to govern in the interests of all Australians.

A simple truth is that healthcare costs are expanding rapidly and the coalition government, in their eight years in power, have watched this happen, sitting on their hands. Those opposite have been in power for eight years and in that time they have demonstrated they either do not have the capacity to address the rising costs of health care or, worse, they're content with watching health care become more expensive, more discriminatory and more inequitable.

I've provided the House, by way of this motion, with information relating to the rising out-of-pocket expenses that Australians are made to pay when accessing health care. It's on the rise, and the government is doing nothing. The government's own data demonstrates that hospital out-of-pocket costs for patients accessing general practitioners have increased by almost 30 per cent and that those accessing non-referred GP visits is now over $35. If you're a struggling single parent and you have two or three children who fall ill at the same time, as often happens in winter, the bill is enough to force people to stop accessing care. They're not unique to GP visits. Specialist consultations are rapidly becoming out of reach for many Australians. There's been the collapse of the hospital outpatient services in many areas, particularly in outer metropolitan areas, and out-of-pocket costs of specialist care have increased by more than 40 per cent. The average gap cost is around $84 to access a specialist in New South Wales, and that's even more in some specialties, such as ophthalmology, ENT surgery and orthopaedic surgery.

Cardiology consults with a private practitioner frequently now cost people well over $150 in out-of-pocket expenses. Patients in New South Wales are paying $27 more than they were each and every time they visit a specialist. Anaesthetics have become expensive, with the costs increasing by over 40 per cent and in some states, like New South Wales, by over 50 per cent. For anyone undergoing a procedure, such as cataract removal and intraocular lens replacement, the out-of-pocket costs are now over $1,000. Otherwise you go on a public hospital waiting list and you may have to wait up to two years to get treatment for your visual impairment. Things are only getting worse as we watch, and it's down to this government's lack of interest and lack of want to try and improve access for all Australians.

Since those opposite came into power, out-of-pocket costs for patients with cancer accessing radiotherapy and therapeutic nuclear medicine have increased by 190 per cent— (Time expired)

Photo of Steve IronsSteve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Photo of Anne StanleyAnne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

6:13 pm

Photo of Andrew LamingAndrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

What an important debate to be having tonight. I can see a farrago of members from around the country and a battle of Titans between a physician and gastroenterologist, so it will be interesting to see where it lands. As a humble ophthalmologist, I do want to make a few observations, having worked in the professions in the late nineties and subsequently as a bulk billing ophthalmologist prior to coming to this place. Out-of-pocket costs were a massive issue then. I confess to not having looked at this issue for around five or 10 years. I recall it as being around 15 per cent of total costs of being out-of-pocket for Australian health consumers. That was about third in the world, after a couple of European countries. I thought I'd better update that, with this motion before the House, and it is, in fact, 18 now. It's a longstanding and intractable problem for health systems around the world, particularly high-quality ones like Australia that allow a private sector. We often forget the additional dimensionality in health care, which is how quickly you get the care. Something Australia is extremely proud of the speed of access to care, which is better than many countries that can claim lower out-of-pocket costs. A great example of that is the UK, where I'm sure many of us have worked. You simply sit in a queue and wait in the NHS system for months, but you don't pay. Let's remember that out of pockets is a single-dimensional analysis of this problem. We also want highest quality care and timely care, because that's all wrapped up in survival rates, of which Australia is rivalled by many other countries at the highest end. The Netherlands is probably regarded by consumers as the best in the world at the moment. But the point I wanted to make today is that this is not an insignificant issue. I commend the member for bringing it before us.

For Australians, $1,200 a year on average is a lot to be paying. I do want to point out that there's a big spread in those numbers. There's a significant skew towards those that are privately insured, but that doesn't mean it's not a massive issue for low-income people who want to get one consultation and are asked for hundreds of dollars or one MRI and have to find $100. That is extremely difficult for them, and it's a tragedy for me as a member of the profession to say that knowing how to navigate your way through, knowing the right questions to ask a GP or knowing to ask whether there's a slightly cheaper option is something Australians never do with the doctor because they feel they shouldn't bring money into it. The great sadness for me is that some of my colleagues don't do the right thing in finding the most appropriate and cost-effective way to get through some of these issues. They're lumped onto drugs that are way too expensive when there is a cheaper option. They're sent off to just one specialist and they don't realise that, like everything, they need to shop around. But shopping around is something we just instinctively don't do for health care.

I want to also touch on what I think is a very important issue, and that is that the answer to all of this is not managed care and the US model. I think we'd have agreement across the Chamber about that. The 2019 agreement signed between nib and Cigna Corporation in the US is of great concern for me, because what we may see is, instead of those out of pockets ostensibly coming down, they're simply pocketed by someone else. You may well make it cheaper for the patient, but the profits are captured by a corporation, which quite innocently and Orwellianly claims that they deliver choice predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalised solutions that advance the whole personal health system. What are they proposing they're delivering, and what is nib up to? You'd be right as a professional and as a clinician to say, 'If you start just signing up one from my profession and saying, "Will you agree to do the nickel-and-dime cataract operation for $100? We'll send all the work to you, and everyone else is cut out of the system."' You see very quickly this great system that we have starting to break down. My greater concern than just a singular look at out of pockets is the risk that we may well think that US managed care is a solution. So to everyone listening—there are thousands out there listening—go to sendtheeaglehome.com.au. The Americans may well have turned up here in a sweetheart deal with nib, but, for anyone who had that policy, be mindful. Send the eagle home—we can sort this out without arrangements with US managed care companies.

The last observation I'll make—and I hope you'll forgive a slightly political and partisan one—is about those who were here under the former Labor government, the member for Gellibrand formerly being the health minister. I just need you to know: if you're talking about an intractable problem like this, you can only look at the period that the Labor government were in power to see what their solutions were to the problem. There have been considered and concerted attacks on private health rebates, which does obviously and self-evidently raise out of pockets. But more importantly was the idea of Nicola Roxon to press the button and say, 'Let's just halve cataract rebates.' We had the grandma campaign, where we saw the incredible second-round effects of halving a rebate. This was saved by a rear-guard action by the ophthalmologists. Labor's solution at the time to fix the problem was to halve the rebate. I'll tell you what: you might have assumed it was superficially seductive, but in the end all you did was throw out of pockets through the roof. So Labor's record of finding solutions to this problem isn't good. (Time expired)

6:18 pm

Photo of Alicia PayneAlicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion, and I thank the member for Macarthur for his motion highlighting these incredibly disturbing figures showing the costs of health care in Australia today. All Australians should be extremely concerned about what this means for them. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted just how important good, accessible health care is, and I want to also take this opportunity to thank all the hardworking frontline healthcare workers, the federal and state public servants and all Australians for the hard work they've done to protect us from the worst of COVID.

We all know that this Liberal government doesn't value universal health care in the way that Labor does. In Tony Abbott's and Joe Hockey's first budget, they decimated funding to Medicare, including higher costs for medicine and higher costs for specialists. Eight long years later, and what have been the results of this tired old Liberal government's work? Out-of-pocket costs have skyrocketed. If you need to see your GP, your out-of-pocket costs are up 37 per cent since Labor left government. For visits to specialists, out-of-pocket costs are up 54 per cent. For anaesthetics, out-of-pocket costs are up 51 per cent. If you're a cancer patient needing to access radiotherapy and therapeutic nuclear medicine, your costs are up by nearly 200 per cent.

Canberrans know this reality all too well. Bulk-billing rates for GPs here in the nation's capital are among the lowest in the country, and this government is doing absolutely nothing to address it. It shouldn't cost Australians an arm and a leg just to go to the doctor, but under this government it does. Australians shouldn't be worried about not being able to pay the bills when they get sick, but under this government they are. Australians who receive the news that they have cancer should not be paying over $10,000 out of their own pockets in order to survive, yet in this country, under this government, it is something that happens.

What did the budget last night do to address these cost blowouts for patients? In typical Liberal fashion, not much. The government pledged $65 million to increase the rate of bulk billing in regional and rural areas. That may sound like a lot but there are 12,000 GPs in the bush, which means there is around $5,500 allocated to each GP. It doesn't even scratch the surface, and it does absolutely nothing for those of us living in cities like Canberra. In the words of the chief executive of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, 'This policy is hardly a game changer.'

We also saw an absolute slap in the face to older Australians and their health. The royal commission into aged care told the government what they needed to do to address this crisis in the sector. Not only did the government only invest in a fraction of the required funds needed to fix the neglect that has happened on their watch, but they're also directing the funds to the private centres that were exposed as being some of the worst in the commission's reports. They have all but left the poorly paid aged-care workers behind. They have all but ignored many of the recommendations of the commission.

There's a theme to how different parties treat healthcare policy in this country. Labor is the party that established Medicare, that established the PBS. We will always fight for it and we always have. The Liberals are the party that tried to destroy Medicare in the 1990s and they continue to treat it with utter contempt today. I believe that, if the voters let them, they will destroy it. Australia used to be a model for how a good, efficient, equitable healthcare system can benefit its citizens. Representatives of the US Congress used to stand up in their debates and cite us as a model to aim for. Not anymore. What we've seen for the past eight years of Liberal mismanagement is the Americanisation of our healthcare system, where profits are prioritised over people, where the rich survive and the poor struggle to get the health care they need.

Only a Labor government will make the health and wellbeing of Australians our top priority and only a Labor government will be on your side.

6:23 pm

Photo of David GillespieDavid Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I am very glad that the member for Macarthur put up this motion on health care. It's a really good topic of discussion, and I have mixed feelings about it. Having practised for 33 years before I entered this august institution representing the good people in the Lyne electorate, I was a medical practitioner. So I declare a historical conflict of interest.

Out-of-pocket medical costs are a problem for some people. Fortunately, it is of a scale that is generally very uncomfortable for some people when they visit some medical practitioners—usually in metropolitan centres more than in regional Australia, is my experience. The good news is, for most people, most of the services are bulk billed. The statistics that I have been able to obtain, for the last reporting in 2019-20—I haven't seen the 2020-21 figures yet—of the bulk-billing rate for total general practice non-referred attendances was 89.5 per cent. You can only bulk bill if you don't charge a gap; otherwise, you're not eligible to use the bulk-billing system. So that is not a bad outcome. That is much better than any other country I know that has a government and a private medical system.

The other thing is, the government doesn't tell doctors what they can charge. It doesn't tell electricians what they can charge. It doesn't tell plumbers what they can charge. But I can tell you there are some plumbers and electricians that charge much greater rates to come and do electrical or plumbing work in your house than a general practitioner does for doing a house call. You've got to keep that in perspective. I'm not trying to trivialise things; I'm just trying to point out that the government doesn't control charges that professional people such as lawyers, doctors, dentists—anyone—can charge.

The assistance that we give through Medicare is exemplary. With specialists, though, it is a different matter. There are some specialists who charge way more than the Medicare rate, and there is a significant gap. Whether it's in surgery or anaesthesia, in my practice some people got huge shocks when they went, and there are processes to try to limit that bill shock and the ability for the patient to have some control over who they go and see, but that involves prewarning by the GP who refers you to a specialist. That is meant to be a regular practice now, but there are some people who don't do that. People develop a relationship with a surgeon or a person who runs a referral practice, and I think any practitioner that refers should know the charges of the person they are referring their patients to. But we have put up systems to try to help people navigate that and work out what is a reasonable gap, what's industry standard and what's right out of the ballpark. There is also the extended Medicare safety net.

With the first thing, we as the coalition government set up in 2019 a web site called the Medical Costs Finder. When you're going to see a surgeon or a medical specialist, you can see what the average out-of-pocket costs are in that region. If someone is going to charge you $500 out of pocket but the industry standard in the de-aggregated data is $50 or $100, you can ask your GP, 'Is this really reasonable?' That's what my patients used to hate. You'd refer them and then they'd get a bill from, say, an anaesthetist, and it was bigger than the surgeon, the hospital and me combined. They would fall off their seat. I would be very angry and I tried to control that by counselling my colleagues that I thought their fees were excessive, but not many doctors—

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting

Photo of David GillespieDavid Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

That's another matter that shouldn't go on the Hansard record, but anyhow!

The other thing is the extended Medicare safety net. With your out-of-pocket costs for out-of-hospital, if you're a concession card holder, a pensioner or someone on family tax benefit A and you qualify for it, you only have to reach $697 in cumulative out-of-pocket costs and you will get 80 per cent of that out-of-pocket cost covered. If you are not eligible for a Commonwealth concession card, that threshold is $2,184, so there is a system to help you with out-of-pocket costs, but most people don't— (Time expired)

6:28 pm

Photo of Anne StanleyAnne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

There are some things that people who live in a First World nation like Australia should expect of their government. Affordable, good-quality health care is one of them. Out-of-pocket payments for health care mean that many people, especially on those on low income, will not be able to access the health care they need. For those that can afford health care when they need it, it can still leave them and their finances severely impacted. High out-of-pocket costs prevent people with long-term or chronic conditions seeking health care. This includes delayed visits to GPs and not filling prescriptions, because of the cost.

Medicare is one of the nation's great public services; however, it only covers 80 per cent of the GP, pathology and imaging services if doctors don't bulk-bill. People with chronic conditions need additional services such as appliances, aids and pain relief for rehabilitation. For the people of Werriwa, out-of-pocket expenses have soared. The average out-of-pocket expense for seeing a specialist in Werriwa in 2020 was just over $100. In 2013, it was $64. That's an average rise in out-of-pocket costs for GP attendances of over $12 since 2013. Werriwa had the 13th-highest out-of-pocket costs for seeing a specialist in 2020, well above the national and state averages.

This is on top of unacceptable waiting times. For public patients, waiting times for significant elective surgery are a continuing problem, partly a result of specialists moving to private hospitals. Liverpool public hospital caters for the majority of residents in Werriwa. It also looks after part of surrounding electorates such as Fowler, McMahon and Hughes. It services up to 300,000 people who may need care, and people are waiting unacceptable lengths of time for that care.

But space and capacity are not the only issue. Liverpool hospital is the largest hospital in New South Wales. What it lacks is funding and staff. Many have had to find thousands of dollars for private surgery because they need urgent care, but even on private waiting lists it can still be up to six weeks before you're seen. The public waiting list can stretch over two years. I've previously pointed out in this place understaffing issues in my local health district.

I highlighted that the Liverpool Hospital Medical Staff Council commissioned a report from Westir that was released in 2018. It found that the health district is significantly under-resourced compared to other districts. That's because the original base funding for the South Western Sydney Local Health District was not adequate to fulfil its needs. Another factor is the lack of alternative healthcare providers, which puts additional reliance on the public hospital system. The social and economic inequality decreases the ability of community members to weather health shocks. The report concludes:

There appears to be greatly increased resident need and significantly less available resources compared with other Greater Sydney LHDs. This is particularly felt by Liverpool Hospital which functions as a quaternary service hospital for the district.

Analysis by the Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre found that Sydney Local Health District receives $2½ thousand in funding per resident. In comparison, the South Western Sydney Local Health District, which includes Liverpool Hospital, only receives $1,750 per resident. The difference is 40 per cent. The evidence is clear: Liverpool Hospital does not have equitable access to funds and has a greater than average challenge in its efforts to meet health care in our community. As the state member for Liverpool, Paul Lynch, puts it, it's like building a new road and not letting cars drive on it.

Out-of-pocket costs and waiting times are significantly diminishing Australians' quality of care and most definitely their quality of life in my electorate. We must avoid the Americanisation of our healthcare system. It should not be determined by the suburb you live in or the limit of your credit card. As a child, I clearly remember conversations between my parents about who they could afford to take to the doctor. Medibank and then Medicare changed those conversations for my family and all other families in Australia. This government must do more to address the rising expenses of out-of-pocket health care and the inequity of access to high-level health care in Australia. I thank the member for Macarthur for moving the motion.

6:33 pm

Photo of Sharon BirdSharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Irons, I notice your raised eyebrows. That may be because you have observed that I'm not actually a government speaker, who would normally take this slot in this debate. I have risen to my feet to make a contribution because it is a critically important issue. I commend my colleague for putting this before the chamber for debate. I campaigned with Dr Freelander when he was first elected, and I can tell you there was hardly anybody who came up who didn't know him, because of his amazing contribution in his previous life to the medical field and particularly young people.

He has moved in this debate a motion on the issue of out-of-pocket healthcare costs. I acknowledge the two government speakers who did make contributions, by and large agreeing with the member's comments—not completely, but by and large. There are two extra speaking spots for government members to talk about what must be a critical issue in their electorates around the out-of-pocket costs of health care, and they can't even fill the speaking list. I think that's a pretty sad state of affairs.

We've just been through the COVID pandemic. An issue that's been raised by medical people across the board over that period of time is their concern about people not following up on their own existing or emerging health issues—cancer tests and so forth—at the same rate as prior to the pandemic. I don't know whether it was because people felt that the medical system was under pressure with COVID or just because they weren't remembering that regular health checks and tests need to be done. There was concern among those medical people that fewer people were accessing those sorts of medical and health services.

One of the things we know with health is that, if you put any form of barrier in people's way, too often they don't follow up. And I think the point my colleague has made about costs being one of those barriers is really important. Increasingly, health providers, GP clinics and so forth, are providing a holistic range of services. They have clinics with other specialists, chronic health management, dietary advisers, exercise people and so forth. With modern medicine, if you make a diagnosis, you can make suggestions to the patient about different things they should follow up and do. If you can walk them straight from your door to the next door, they are far more likely to follow through with those things. It's the same with making a referral to a specialist: it's a challenge to make sure people actually follow through. I have been guilty a few times myself. My GP has told me to go and have some tests, and I keep thinking I'll get around to doing that. So it is really important that you put fewer barriers in place and make it easier.

Out-of-pocket costs are a big part of that story. All members had people in their electorates who contact them and say, 'The doctor said to go for this particular scheme. When I went to book it they said it was going to cost several hundred dollars. I just don't have that money.' This is a serious problem. It is saving you pennies and costing you pounds. When people don't follow through and get early diagnosis and then get into early effective treatment, on a pure economic measure, we are paying more because they end up with more complex and more difficult illnesses that have to be managed.

Out-of-pocket expenses have been increasing. This is a real issue and it should be a priority. I acknowledge that, in the budget last night, the government provided some additional funding for bulk-billing for regional and rural doctors' services. That indicates to me that the government is fully aware of why this is important. I would suggest that they need to look far more broadly. I would commend to them the policy on cancer support that Labor took to the last election—the policy to have no out-of-pocket costs for tests and treatment around that. I commend my colleague Dr Freelander. I am very disappointed that colleagues in the other house haven't been able to fill the speakers list.

6:38 pm

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

I rise to speak on this important motion moved by my friend and colleague Dr Freelander. As others have done, I express my sincere gratitude to Dr Freelander for the work he has done across his working life in paediatrics, in his regional community and in his contributions to this house. This motion is important because, under this government, far too many Australians, including many in my electorate on the Central Coast of New South Wales, can't get health care when they need it. Every Australian deserves quality health care—wherever they are born, live or grow old. That's why the Whitlam government introduced Medibank, which, after being wound back by the Liberals, was re-established as Medicare under Prime Minister Hawke.

Under the Morrison government, universal healthcare, the foundation that underpins Medicare, is being eroded. Access to care is increasingly being determined by where you live and what you earn. The government's own Institute of Health and Welfare has found that people who earn less, live in insecure housing or get by with insecure work have difficulty accessing care, and that people living outside of big cities often have poorer health, made worse by longer waiting times, higher out-of-pocket costs and a shortage of healthcare workers.

As Dr Freelander and my colleagues have said, out-of-pocket costs have soared in the eight long years the coalition has been in office. The average out-of-pocket cost to visit a GP has increased by 29.6 per cent, while the out-of-pocket cost to visit a specialist has almost doubled, and costs for cancer patients needing radiotherapy have nearly tripled. At the same time, wages have stalled, so people are finding it harder to meet these costs for essential care.

Out-of-pocket costs are not the only barrier to care. In March, I raised the acute shortage of general practitioners on the Central Coast in the House. The community and local GPs have described this shortage as a crisis. I wrote to Minister Hunt about the impact of large parts of the Central Coast not being classified as distribution priority areas. The reply from the minister's office stated, 'Major capital cities and metropolitan areas have high levels of primary care services compared to regional and remote locations.' If the government know this, why aren't they doing something about it? The reply went on to say, 'Lake Haven and surrounding areas of the northern Central Coast are non-DPA because they have been assessed as receiving adequate GP services for the needs of the community.' So why did a senior GP with a large multisite practice tell me only last week that they turn away 200 patients a day between their four clinics because they can't meet the demand? Just last week, another practice in my electorate, in Wyong, was forced to close its books following the retirement of a GP. They sent a message to their patients: 'Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, our GPs within our practice have no capacity to take additional patients. Therefore, we are unable to offer you ongoing care.'

The shortage means some local GPs are working 10-hour days in their practices, only to follow up with shifts at the Bridges After Hours GP Clinic on the grounds of Wyong hospital. If the Bridges After Hours GP Clinic is overwhelmed—and I'm told that sometimes they have to close their doors to patients at eight because they won't be able to see them by the time they finish, after 10—patients end up in the emergency department of Wyong hospital, sometimes waiting for up to 12 hours. I worked at Wyong hospital as a senior pharmacist in mental health for almost 10 years. Staff at the hospital are dedicated, hardworking and capable, but they are under enormous strain.

Given this crisis, I invited the shadow minister for health, Mark Butler, to the coast last week to hear from local GPs in a roundtable. This week, we've again written to Minister Hunt urging him to act. I understand from my correspondence with the minister that the next DPA update is scheduled for 1 July this year and, if circumstances in communities change substantially, this will be reflected in the update. I call on the minister again: they must be changed. I call on the minister to act now to make the Central Coast and other regional communities like ours a priority area so everyone can get the care they deserve when they need it.

We know that if people delay care—I know this as a pharmacist and as a local MP—they get worse. They end up in emergency departments, overwhelming our hospital system. It's not in their interests, it's not in the interests of our healthcare system and it's not in the interests of our economy. I call on the health minister to act now, to act in the interests of our community and to make the Central Coast an area of priority. (Time expired)

Photo of Steve IronsSteve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.