Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leaders and many other health stakeholders have raised serious concerns about the Federal Budget, as outlined in the comprehensive wrap of reactions below.
This post compiles statements from: National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation; SNAICC, the national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children; Australian Education Union; Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association; Australian Dental Association; Oxfam; End COVID For All; Consumers Health Forum; Youth Health Forum; Royal Australian College of General Practitioners; Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education; Australian College of Mental Health Nurses; Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia; Country Women’s Association (CWA) of NSW; Dementia Australia; Hepatitis Australia; Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations; Professionals Australia; Australian Psychological Society; Medicines Australia; Australian Medical Students’ Association; Community Foundations Australia and Philanthropy Australia.
Also see this previous wrap for reaction from: People with Disability Australia; the Australian Aged Care Collaboration; the Change the Record coalition; community health services provider cohealth; the Australian Medical Association; the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation; the Rural Doctors Association of Australia; Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association; the Australian Academy of Science; the Refugee Council of Australia.
Another big-spending budget short-changes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
Statement by The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) has already welcomed the previously announced four-year rolling funding agreement for the sector, but this is just a necessary adjustment to support the current arrangements. ‘Business as usual’ is not going to close the health gap.
NACCHO is tiring of singular announcements in Aboriginal health while the health gap fails to close. Structural reform is required and substantial funding investment. The last three big-spending budgets were the Government’s opportunity to address this. They have failed to act.
The CEO of NACCHO, Pat Turner said, “Although I am grateful to see the Puggy Hunter Memorial Scholarship Scheme and support for screening services, mental health policy partnerships and $2.4m for ACCHOs to help in responding to the East Coast floods, I am disappointed that the core funding for our services has remained much the same. I am also worried that the Budget has assumed that ACCHOs’ expenditure will contract significantly after COVID. This may be a significant flaw in their modelling.”
In Cairns, the Chair of NACCHO, Donnella Mills said, “What we need is a substantial review of funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. In work we commissioned from Equity Economics it has been calculated – as conservatively as possible and using validated Government data – that the funding gap in Aboriginal health is $4.4 billion (= $5,042 per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person). The Commonwealth’s share of this shortfall is $2.6 billion. Yet dangerous myths prevail that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health is over-funded. How can we seriously expect as a nation to ever close the health gap if the funding gap is so large? We will continue to live lives 8-9 years shorter than other Australians.”
NACCHO serves well over 410,000 clients per year, delivering over 3.1 million episodes of care, of which 1 million are delivered in remote communities. Its clinics are favoured by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and are directly controlled by the communities they serve. They are more cost-effective than mainstream health services and represent an effective investment means for the Commonwealth. The model was developed in 1971 – which predates Medicare itself – and can no longer be considered an unproved model of care.
The government has had the opportunity to fix the funding gap in three big-spending budgets focused on stimulus measures. If it had done so, at the same time, it could have delivered financial stimulus to the 550 local economies in which our services are located.
CEO Pat Turner said, “As long as this $4.4 billion funding gap remains and as long as there are funding gaps elsewhere – in particular, in housing – we cannot expect the unconscionable health gap to close. This Budget is an opportunity lost. NACCHO calls upon the Government to close the funding gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
Budget falls short for our children
Statement by SNAICC, the national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle welcomed the significant funding in tonight’s Budget to increase women and children’s safety.
The $30 million to build and maintain links between the National Framework for protecting Australia’s Children and the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Their Children will help protect at risk Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people,” Ms Liddle said.
“The creation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Supports and the establishment of a National Advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People are particularly welcomed.
“These are measures SNAICC has been advocating for some time.
“Disappointingly though there is a considerable short fall in the commitment needed to meet the ambitious targets set out in the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap.
“There is agreement between all Governments and the Coalition of Peaks to reduce over-representation in out of home care by 45 per cent by 2031.
“There is also agreement to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children developmentally on track against all 5 domains of the Australian Early Development Census by 55%.
“Achieving these targets ensure our children get the best start in life and can thrive in their families and cultures.
“We can reduce the unacceptably high rates of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander children removed from families, too often ending up caught in the justice system.
“We can give our children a better start in life by making sure they have access to quality, community controlled early childhood education and services.
“But this isn’t going to happen without a sustained effort to transform government service systems, including large scale new investments in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-led solutions.
“Disappointingly we just aren’t seeing that effort in this Budget.
“Working in partnership with government we can turn this around and close the gap.”
Ms Liddle called on all candidates and parties running for election to commit to:
- Investment in prevention and early support services for families through a new national program for ACCO-led integrated family support services.
- Reforming the federal child care funding model to increase access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to culturally appropriate education and care.
- Establishing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood intermediaries in every state and territory in partnership with SNAICC to build the community-controlled early years sector.
- Planning and investment to build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce for child and family service delivery across the country.
- Long-term core funding to SNAICC – National Voice for our Children so we have certainty to continue as the national peak for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and to engage in shared decision-making with governments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Public schools hit
Statement by Australian Education Union
The Morrison Government’s 2022-2023 Federal Budget has slashed funding for public schools by $559 million over the next three years, whilst increasing funding for private schools by $2.6 billion over the forward estimates.
“Closer analysis of the budget papers shows the Morrison government has cut over half a billion dollars from public schools,” said Correna Haythorpe, Australian Education Union Federal President.
The cuts to public schools’ funding from the 2021-22 budget are:
- $139 million in 2022-23
- $193.9 million in 2023-24
- $226.9 million in 2024-25
There is no funding allocated for capital works in public schools in this year’s Federal Budget either.
“This is a devastating reduction in funding for public schools at a time when schools are dealing with the deep impact of the COVID pandemic and escalating inequality for students across the nation.
“This savage cut to public schools was hidden in the detail. PM Morrison hoped principals, teachers, support staff and parents wouldn’t notice. They will.”
In sharp contrast, the increases to private schools’ funding are:
- $616.8 million in 2022-23
- $690 million in 2023-24
- $715.6 million in 2024-25
- $537.1 million in 2025-26
“PM Morrison’s blatant favouritism for the private school sector comes at a great cost for public schools and their students, staff and parents.
“Treasurer Josh Frydenberg boasts about delivering “record funding” for schools but does not make the distinction that they are delivering record funding for private schools at the expense of public schools every year.
“It is public schools that are witnessing booming enrolment growth and have the greatest need for capital spending on new buildings and state of the art facilities. It is public schools that need additional funding for more teachers, support staff, smaller class sizes and learning programs for students.
“It is public schools that provide a high-quality education for every child regardless of their background or circumstances. Yet PM Morrison has shamelessly shirked his responsibility to ensure that public schools have the resources they need to cater for their students.
“We urgently need the next Federal Government to address the deep inequality in public school funding, remove the 20 per cent cap on federal funding, guarantee a minimum of at least 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard and establish a capital works fund.
“Anything less fails Australia’s students.”
Many systemic problems left unaddressed
Statement by Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
In the federal budget, Australians would have been looking for an investment in their health.
Over the past two years, the pandemic has disrupted health care. The health and financial impacts of missed opportunities for early diagnosis and treatment on the health system are likely to be long-term, and waiting lists have grown.
‘In this budget, resources towards catching up on the high numbers of patient for whom care was delayed should have been a given. Funding as a one-off boost to capacity for breast cancer, cervical screening and colonoscopy triage is welcomed, yet this only addresses one element of delayed care, with nothing further reflected in public hospital funding beyond recurrent spending and planned growth,’ says Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association Acting CEO Kylie Woolcock.
‘With widespread COVID infection across the Australian population, there is going to be a need for investment in Long COVID management and care services. The symptoms are diverse, but able to be managed in primary and community care. Enabling outcomes-focused, value-based care, provided by teams of general practitioners, nurses and allied health providers is critical in minimising the long-term burden.
‘The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated inequities in Australia’s health, and we know these gaps will only widen if investments are not made now.
‘It is not just the size of the investment, but the terms of that investment. Longer term funding approaches are necessary in rural and remote regions for health care models to be successful and sustainable, and we welcome the 10-year strategic agreement with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) that provides the necessary security for the communities it serves. However, there are many communities that would benefit from the security and certainty in the services that such long-term commitments can provide.’
Reorienting the health system to value over volume is dependent on a national health information strategy to consolidate health information, promote cross-sector linkages and promote efficient, timely and consistent data collection and reporting. The budget should have provided the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) the remit for this to continue.
‘And while $32.3 million will be put to continuing the Intergovernmental Agreement on Digital Health with states and territories, supporting My Health Record and the Health Care Identifiers, further digital health investment appears to be prioritising streamlining administration over enabling the transformation of the way health care is provided.
‘Critical investment in driving innovation is lacking in primary and community care. Without it, problems of affordability for individuals and the system will continue to grow. The budget has done little to address this.’
Government fails oral health
Statement by Australian Dental Association
The nation’s oral health has yet again shown to be of no importance to the Morrison government with scant mention of oral health made in last night’s 2022 pre-election Budget.
The failure to address the declining oral health of many older, poor and disadvanataged Australians in the Treasurer’s speech does not bode well for it to be addressed in May’s Federal election either.
“This is a very disappointing outcome,” said ADA CEO Damian Mitsch, “when we know that thousands of people have to wait years to get a dental appointment in the public system.
“Also, there are large numbers of Australians including those in residential aged care, those on Level 4 Homecare Packages, those from socially and economically challenged backgrounds and Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander populations for whom dental care is unaffordable.
“The ADA has put to successive governments and to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety our plan to fix the inequity in oral care between those who can afford their own dental care and those who have to wait years in the public system.”
While National Partnership Agreements were once again extended in the Budget to ensure public dental services for another year or two, this is a Band-Aid measure for a broken system.
The solution to the funding crisis in dental care for older Australians and which was agreed upon by Aged Care Commissioners in their final report to government, is the adoption of the ADA’s Seniors Dental Benefits Schedule (SDBS) to make dentistry affordable to older Australians.
The SDBS would fund dental services for people in residential care and older people who live in the community and receive the aged pension.
“If the government adopted the SDBS, it would mean funding dental care for older Australians as well as some fundamental systems finally being put into place to ensure better dental care for residential and home care residents,” said Damian Mitsch.
Glaring inadequacies of the aged care sector result in residents going for days without anyone brushing their teeth and/or dentures, painful oral conditions remaining untreated for long periods, insufficient visits from dental staff, and a lack of training in oral healthcare by time-poor staff.
“Our plea to look at this solution has yet to be taken up by a political party with the foresight to see that investment in the nation’s oral health now, saves the public purse billions of dollars further down the track – from presentations at hospital emergency departments for people no longer able to withstand the pain in their mouths, right through to the knock-on effects of poor oral health on the rest of the body including cardiac events, Type 2 diabetes and poor pregnancy outcomes.”
In the run-up to the Federal election, the ADA has put a series of oral health questions to the four main parties to ascertain their oral health policies. Their responses will form ‘Report Cards’ on how their plans to fix our ailing oral health system measure up.
Damian Mitsch added: “These responses and our members’ reactions to them, will be sent to MPs in members’ constituencies and to the media, to ensure that the main parties’ oral health policies – or lack of them – are known to everyone.
“That way people vote with their eyes wide open in full knowledge of which party has prioritised oral health.”
Lacks ambition at time of massive need
Statement by Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Lyn Morgain
At a time of rapidly escalating need and growing inequality across the globe, this federal budget fails to demonstrate the leadership that is required from a nation like Australia.
While Oxfam welcomes the marginal increase in aid funding through indexation, a lift in the humanitarian intake for people from Afghanistan and an enhanced focus on gender equality, these measures don’t come close to meeting current global challenges.
Our world is in crisis and Australia’s strategic interests are under threat, as our region continues to respond to COVID-19 and climate change.
This current turmoil is yet another reminder that contemporary multicultural Australia is deeply connected to communities in crisis worldwide. While Australia’s economy has started to bounce back, we must not close our eyes to the devastating impacts of the pandemic, conflict and climate-induced disasters on the world’s poorest communities. We expect governments of wealthy nations like ours to do more when there is such a critical need.
Our region is already being hit hard by the impacts of climate change. Women, girls and other marginalised people will be most affected. Yet the federal government has consistently ignored calls from Pacific leaders to take stronger action by rapidly reducing emissions and paying our fair share to help them adapt to the changing climate.
Pacific leaders are signaling that current development support from wealthy countries in the region is not meeting their needs and are turning to others for partnerships.
As the war in Ukraine pushes up food and commodity prices, the conflict in Yemen extends into its ninth year with millions of people going hungry, and the situation in much of East Africa is becoming increasingly desperate.
Our government must accept its place in our global economy, with all the responsibilities that entails, and contribute its fair share to humanitarian efforts. This budget continues a pattern of humanitarian assistance being woefully below our fair share.
While Australian aid and development spending remains relatively stagnant in the coming years, defence, security and intelligence spending has increased.
This formula will not deliver peace, stability and prosperity for the region. We need quality, long-term development programs that forge closer links and improve the lives of people experiencing poverty and injustice.
Further boost in COVID-19 aid for global neighbours warmly welcomed
Statement by End COVID For All spokesperson Rev Tim Costello
We welcome the Australian Government’s increase in aid to address global vaccine inequity as well as the extension of key pandemic support packages for the Indo-Pacific.
In the 2022-23 Federal Budget, Australia’s aid budget rose from $4.335b to $4.549b.
A new two-year investment of $324.4m to provide economic and social support to aid COVID-19 recovery in the Pacific and Timor Leste was announced, as well as a further $85m for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment to provide the poorest 92 countries access to safe vaccines.
“From the outset of the pandemic – as we saw COVID-19 migrate and mutate from the cosmopolitan hubs of Milan and New York, to the packed slums of Dehli and the struggling health system in Port Moresby – we knew the world’s poor would be hit hard,” said Rev Tim Costello.
“And so we’ve said all along, ‘this doesn’t end for anyone, until it ends for everyone.’
“We welcome Australia’s increase in aid to address global vaccine inequity and the economic impacts of the pandemic at a critical time for both those nations and ours.
“Thanks to our access to vaccines, most Australians are now living without fear of death or serious illness from COVID-19. However, that is not the case around the world.
“In the past week, COVID case numbers have surged in Samoa and Vanuatu. Samoa has introduced a strict lockdown and closed its borders, while Vanuatu has brought in daytime movement restrictions and a 6pm to 6am curfew.
“Logistics and supply chains are being disrupted and already fragile health systems are being pushed to their limits.
“Australians lived through this just months ago and we know the solution is through a combination of financial support and vaccine delivery.
“In Vanuatu, fewer than 37 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Without urgent assistance, this rate is unlikely to reach an acceptable level anytime soon.
“In other developing countries, the situation is even more dire. Just 14.5 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
“The longer we leave COVID to run rampant in developing countries, the more chance it has to mutate into more deadly and vaccine resistant forms.
“Many of us believed we had defeated COVID in Australia until the Delta and Omicron variants emerged from the largely unvaccinated regions of India and Southern Africa respectively.
“We cannot rest on our laurels. There is much work to be done to not only strengthen health systems globally but to secure Australia’s economic and health security and avoid economically-disastrous lockdowns, particularly at a time where we face rapidly rising costs of living.
“As Australia prepares to join other world leaders for an emergency COVAX AMC Summit on 8 April to be hosted by Germany, we call on the Australian Government to increase this new investment in COVAX from $85 million up to $250 million to help deliver and distribute vaccines across the world.
“This is the best global mechanism Australia can invest in to equitably deliver vaccines into arms in the Pacific and across the world.”
Some welcome news, some lost opportunities
Statement by the Consumers Health Forum
The Consumers Health Forum welcomes tonight’s health budget as a solid budget which continues to invest in health care for Australians.
The highlights for health consumers include targeted cost of living measures to make medicines more affordable, significant investments in mental health services, and permanency of Medicare subsidised telehealth.
The Voice of Australian Health Consumers Report, released yesterday by CHF and our academic collaborators, starkly reveal that one quarter of people surveyed said that they did not fill a prescription or omitted medicines and a third said this was because of cost. 24 percent reported serious levels of mental distress.
CHF CEO, Leanne Wells said that: “Lowering the PBS Safety Net eligibility threshold for both concessional and non-concessional patients is a long-standing initiative advocated by CHF and will improve outcomes for people who have chronic conditions or multiple prescription needs.”
“Young people have experienced unprecedented psychological distress in association with the pandemic. Support for critical community-based services like Lifeline, the Early Psychosis Youth Services, headspace and new eating disorder treatment clinics will make a real difference, although more investment is always warranted,” Ms Wells said.
“Australians have embraced digital health care, partly because it was a vital necessity during pandemic lockdowns and also because they value its convenience. It is now important to make telehealth a commonplace service in healthcare as 71% of Australians who use telehealth said it was as good or better than face-to-face care.”
Other welcome measures are the support for pharmacists embedded in government-funded residential aged care facilities (RACFs), which means more quality and safe medication management and avoidance of the harms and costs that are associated with medication misadventure.
Notable for regional Australia, is $296.5 million in funding towards the 10-Year Stronger Rural Health Strategy with funding towards putting more health professionals into rural and regional areas. This will mean more health care support for the 55 per cent percent of rural health consumers in the survey who said they needed more doctors, nurses and health workers in the regions.
“It was pleasing to see the Budget include measures to address the needs of key groups in our community. The women’s health package will see new endometriosis and pelvic pain GP clinics and enhanced breast and cervical cancer screening,” said Ms Wells.
“We particularly welcome specific health communications campaigns and preventive health initiatives for CALD communities, but stress that these must be co designed with the communities themselves. The pandemic highlighted the crucial need for all Australians to receive healthcare information that’s appropriately targeted.”
“While we welcome the release of the 10 Year Primary Health Care Plan, we are disappointed that after two years of extensive consultation and co-design with all stakeholders including consumers, there has been a failure to commit to a funded program of transformational implementation.
This is a lost opportunity for the government to lead and drive major structural and financing reform in primary care. Primary care is the backbone of a high performing health system and is the first place people turn to for healthcare. We cannot afford for it to experience under-investment and become overwhelmed.
Targeted affordability measures need to be incorporated into primary health care. While our sentiment survey showed that 84 percent of Australians were satisfied with the health care services they received, we have a long way to go to ensure accessible, affordable services. Primary care reform must address these issues.
“While there looks to be significant investment in preventive health, there is a cluster of small-scale project-based measures and no cohesive and consolidated plan.”
Australians need to have confidence that our hospital system is sustainable and able to cope with increased demand as the population ages. Hospital spending is up almost $20 billion in 14 years. While this reflects demand, there does not appear to have been any genuine attempt to leverage this scale of funding to reform the way we deliver hospital care and to systemically take the pressure off hospitals through alternatives like hospital in the home.
“Most disappointingly some of the measures we were hoping to see were missing, such as pledges to a national social prescribing scheme, no meaningful investments to improve access to dental and the creation of a National Centre for Disease Control, said Ms Wells.
Call for greater focus on young people’s concerns
Statement by the Youth Health Forum
The Youth Health Forum, coordinated by the Consumers Health Forum, has welcomed the $206.5 million for additional Early Psychosis Youth Services (EPYS) to support the mental health of young people and other inclusions such as enhancements to headspace, and community-based eating disorder treatment services.
“The pandemic, natural disasters, steep rises in the cost of living, housing pressures and the general climate of global uncertainty have cumulated to hit young people hard,” said Ms Roxxanne MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Youth Health Forum.
“Healthcare, employment, education and social connection has been disrupted in unprecedented ways, dashing the hopes and aspirations for many young people. The situation facing young people commands a robust response, particularly in the form of accessible and affordable mental health services,” said Leanne Wells, CEO of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia.
According to ABS and AIHW data, one in four young people in Australia will experience a mental illness, a further one in four of those young people have not accessed treatment for their illnesses. A young person with a complex mental illness will find getting help difficult and expensive, often with excessive wait times.
And rural and regional young Australians face major additional challenges in accessing mental healthcare.
The Australian Health Consumer Sentiment Survey released yesterday by CHF and research partners, is a reminder of the serious levels of mental distress in the community, and of the barriers to care faced by many. Barriers such as affordability of healthcare and medicines are amplified for young people,” said Ms Wells.
“The outlook for young people is stark: many fear an uncertain future. While the announcement of continued funding for the Early Psychosis Youth Services and its expansion is a great start, more needs to be done. Young people who are not in the high-risk categories covered by EPYS, need more support with more funding towards improving all young people’s access to essential mental and general health care.”
Without more action, many young people’s mental illnesses will progress and continue until they reach a higher risk category and place increasing pressure on acute mental health services.’’
“We also need to pay crucial attention to wider social determinants of youth health and wellbeing. The proportion of money spent by the average young person to cover the basics has ballooned over the last few years. Even before the most recent cost of living increases, many young people still had to make choices between accessing the care they need, paying rent and buying essentials like food and medication,” said Ms MacDonald.
We also welcome the much needed jobs aimed at young people, with the announcement of more wage subsidy support for apprentices. More can and must be done – investment in renewable energy and manufacturing will create greater certainty for the future for young Australians. A focus on future jobs should extend beyond apprenticeships and into higher education and other emerging sectors is essential to build a prosperous and safe Australia.
“Instead of malaise, we want young people to have hope and aspirations about a brighter future. To deliver this, we need a comprehensive set of measures organised under a National Youth Health Plan that focuses on not just on mental health, but on general health care, wellbeing and the root causes of poor physical and mental health outcomes for young people,” said Ms Wells.
The Plan should start with the six challenges identified in the YHF’s 2021 Life Transitions and Youth Pathways to Health Services report: trusting healthcare services, transitioning to adult healthcare, delivering digital healthcare, navigating the healthcare system, building a more equitable healthcare system and developing health literacy.
The Youth Health Forum ensures the voices and experiences of young health consumers are a part of the national conversation on health and social services. We stand ready to work with governments to improve and promote youth health and wellbeing.
“Unless we address the overarching issues that concern young people, we cannot hope to stem the tide of mental and physical illnesses that greatly affects our communities,” said Ms Wells.
So much promise, so little delivery
Statement by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has warned that this year’s budget fails to address the fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the future challenges of a fatigued health system.
It has not delivered on the planned reforms that would guarantee a stronger future for the nation’s primary health system.
The college’s main concern is that vital components of the Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan remain unfunded. Failure to meaningfully invest in this plan means that tonight’s budget did not address the gaps identified by the RACGP and other health groups, including aged care, mental health, disability, and funding to support chronic and complex care.
Tonight’s budget also failed to include funding for the implementation of the long-overdue reforms related to voluntary patient enrolment, aimed at providing more support for patients who need it most.
Whilst recognising these shortfalls, the RACGP has welcomed:
- $16.4 million to establish new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics in general practice, ensuring that there is frontline, primary care support available to improve early diagnosis, treatment, and support, as well as $5.1 million to develop an Endometriosis Management Plan to support patients in primary care
- $81.2 million for a new Medicare rebate for genetic testing for cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and fragile X syndrome
- $296.5 million as part of the 10-Year Stronger Rural Health Strategy including more rural medical Commonwealth Supported Places and deregulation of MRI Medicare Benefits Schedule services for Australians in regional, rural, and remote areas
- $127.8 million for trauma-informed national counselling services to support victim-survivors and extending support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Support Services for families who are experiencing, witnessing or at risk of family or domestic violence
- $55 million for the purchase and continued provision of essential Personal Protective Equipment for GPs and pharmacists.
The RACGP is also pleased to see the continued commitment to permanent universal telehealth.
RACGP President Dr Karen Price acknowledged the primary care budget measures but considered them underwhelming given the meaningful investment required for the long-term future of general practice patient care.
“In our submission to the draft 10 Year Plan, we stressed that high-quality care offered by GPs is at risk if substantial reform does not take place. Reform without proper investment is not worth the paper it’s written on,” she said.
“General practice is under enormous pressure delivering COVID-19 vaccines and soon we will be doing the same for influenza vaccines. We are helping patients who have delayed or avoided care during the pandemic, including those with mental health issues amidst a looming mental health crisis in Australia. To give general practice a helping hand we need to fix workforce gaps, particularly in rural and remote areas, and increase Medicare rebates to reflect the cost of providing high-quality general practice care for all patients no matter their postcode.
“Tonight’s budget simply did not live up to expectations on the 10 Year Plan. This is very frustrating given the time, resources, and effort we and many other health groups have put in over several years. The federal Government has failed to provide much needed funding to support vulnerable patient groups, including those with chronic and complex disease, and deliver on what is needed to ensure a strong future for primary healthcare in Australia.
“There is also a disappointing lack of new investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare. If we are serious about Closing the Gap, then surely giving greater assistance to general practices, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, and other health services, to improve health outcomes must be a priority.”
The RACGP President said that the Government also missed a vital opportunity to institute voluntary patient enrolment.
“We know that continuity of care is linked to better patient relationships, better uptake of preventive care, increased access to care, and reduced healthcare use and costs,” she said.
“The Budget provides $0.5 million over 4 years to establish and maintain a governance and advisory group for the implementation of the 10 Year Plan. But we’ve already had 3 years of discussions and roundtables. We don’t need more of the same; we need action.
“This budget will do nothing to attract medical students to the specialty of general practice and this means that the sustainability of the most cost-efficient and effective part of the health system remains at high risk. A failure of investment in primary care puts every other part of the health system in jeopardy. We can’t afford to run out of GPs”
The RACGP Election Statement, Pre-budget submission and submission to the Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan (July and November) all highlight why investment in general practice is more important now than ever before.