Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and for some notice of it. I note his very genuine concern in this area. As the senator has indicated, the minister is yet to receive the information as a result of the ongoing review of the MBS. The review was initiated in April 2015 by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Sussan Ley. I think she needs to be congratulated for doing that. We have 5,700 items on the MBS. There was a very widely held view that a number of those were outdated and perhaps unsafe, unproven or overused. So I think it was very timely indeed that the minister initiated this review at that point in time.

What we have seen since then is the work of the MBS review committee, led by Professor Bruce Robinson, do a significant body of work in relation to the determination of the appropriateness of those items. That being the case, the minister is yet to receive that information. So it would not be appropriate to preempt the findings of that committee or indeed try and hazard a guess as to what might be the outcome put forward. The clinical committees and working groups that have been put in place to do this work are eminently qualified to do that. I think it appropriate that we allow them to do their work and make their recommendations in due course.