Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Timely access to high-quality, affordable health care should be available to all Australians. This is an issue that has been plaguing my community for some time, because many cannot get in and see a doctor. I've raised this many times over my years as a member of parliament, and it seems now to be falling on deaf ears with this government. I am very pleased that Labor has been able to get a Senate inquiry up that will look at the acute GP shortages in places like my electorate. This inquiry will investigate the critical lack of doctors across outer metropolitan, rural and regional Australia. Whether it's hospital care, or specialist care or being able to get in to see your local GP, it's incredibly important to be able to access these services in a timely manner.

The southern suburbs of Adelaide are facing a shortage of GPs, and that is preventing many of my local residents getting the basic health care they need—not least during a global pandemic, when access to affordable and timely health care has never been more important. I hear time and time again from local residents that they are waiting too long to get an appointment with a regular GP, and many doctors in the southern suburbs are stretched so thin that they have been forced to close their books to new patients. Over 300 residents in my community have signed a petition in just a few short weeks, calling on the federal government to address the GP shortage in the southern suburbs.

This is just some of the feedback I received from local residents about their frustration in trying to book in with a GP. Gary from Old Reynella shared his experience of having to wait up to two weeks. He pleaded with the government, saying, 'More GPs are desperately needed.' Milton from Reynella East wrote: 'I have to wait up to two weeks. This is not good enough. We should not have to wait two weeks to see a doctor.' Shirley shared her experience: 'I have to wait at least three to four weeks for an appointment. I feel sorry for our overworked doctors.' Constance from Morphett Vale said: 'Sometimes I've waited up to three weeks or more. I have heart failure, lung failure and kidney failure. I feel very afraid, and I'm unaware when I need to access a doctor at very short notice, so please help us in the south.' Susan from Moana said she had to wait—unbelievably—a month to see her GP. She also said, 'There is a desperate need for doctors in the south.' These are just some of the voices of the thousands of residents in my community who desperately need better access to basic health care.

It's not just patients who are crying out for help; it's GP clinics as well. There are multiple suburbs across the south that have been classified by the federal Department of Health as areas of workforce shortage for GPs, yet due to a bureaucratic line on a map these GP clinics are not able to access the programs that they say would help them recruit new doctors and healthcare professionals. It is nonsensical and completely appalling that these clinics sit in areas of recognised workforce shortage but cannot access the programs to help them address this problem. That's particularly so when we're relying on these same overworked doctors and overstretched GP clinics to help get vaccines into arms as part of the government's vaccine rollout. Maybe if they had paid a bit better attention over the last long eight years of being in government and ensured that our primary healthcare system was well resourced and well staffed then we wouldn't see the bungled vaccine rollout that we have now.

The lack of timely access to local doctors has flow-on consequences to the whole health system. A family from Aberfoyle Park contacted me to share their experience of when they were forced to call an ambulance after being unable to see a doctor. After calling triple 0 for an ambulance, the family was left waiting for two hours for an ambulance to be diverted from the city. The family advised me that this isn't the first time. Our healthcare system is in crisis. We need a government that will resource our primary health care properly and ensure that residents can see a doctor. (Time expired)