Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really proud that the Albanese Labor government is partnering with Flinders University in my electorate on an exciting new project that will deliver 1,300 new nurses and allied health workers every year. It will also deliver an additional 10,000 allied health appointments that will be either free or low cost, via student led clinics, giving the students a really good-quality placement for their practicals. These allied health appointments will also work in with the nearby Flinders Medical Centre, to reduce their patient waiting lists, and work with older people who are inpatients and may have recovered from whatever it was that brought them into hospital but need reconditioning or strengthening in order to be able to return home.

The Flinders Health2Go clinic, on which this model is built, has already reduced the outpatient waiting lists for the ophthalmology clinic from four years to four months. All of those people on the waiting list who've been seen quickly now know that, if there's nothing wrong, they can stop worrying. Or, if there is something wrong, they can actually get fast-tracked back in and see the specialist quickly. With the growing and ageing population of southern Adelaide, this is a fantastic step forward into the health care of the future while, at the same, working on solving our health workforce issues.