Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question. There are 38 applicants who have been selected to form the next Medicare Locals. Medicare Locals are local organisations responsible for ensuring the primary healthcare system meets the needs of local communities. Medicare Locals will make it easier for patients to access services by better linking local GPs, nursing and other health services. They will work closely with local hospital networks to make sure the primary healthcare services and hospitals work together.

Medicare Locals will identify gaps in local services and coordinate services to address those gaps. While I do not take your word for it but I am sure that you are correct that there are Medicare-type locals in your area, there will always be areas where there are not, where there may be gaps in the system where Medicare Locals can fulfil that role. Eighteen Medicare Locals are being established from January 2012, with the remaining Medicare Locals to be established from July 2012, 20 of which will be announced. The Department of Health and Ageing will continue—this is the important part—to work with applicants in the remaining five Medicare Locals catchments to confirm their arrangements. So it is important across Australia, particularly Victoria and New South Wales, that they work with the Department of Health and Ageing to find areas where they can provide those services. This is good news for areas to fill gaps to ensure that primary healthcare systems do meet the demands of locals. The areas being looked at—such as Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local—are areas where they can be established— (Time expired)