It’s a good thing that Mark Butler was reappointed as Health and Aged Care Minister, as it seems he’d already returned to work in the portfolio, where a long to-do list awaits his attention.
As The Zap reports, bringing “all of dental into Medicare while also closing the rural health divide” should be on that list. Scope of practice issues are also prominent in the column this week, as well as aged care reform concerns.
The quotable?
Let’s hope the second term of the Albanese Government sees a willingness to tackle the hard reform questions.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
Health Minister Mark Butler was interviewed on Adelaide radio on the Monday following the election, telling listeners he had been on the 6am flight from Adelaide to Canberra and was back in the office.
Butler said his priorities included “turning bulk billing around for people without a concession card… rolling out more Urgent Care Clinics [and] continuing the work on expanding the Flinders Medical Centre to expand training opportunities at that precinct as well”
He said the Government had made a lot of commitments that would make a real difference to the health system, and that if he was reappointed as Health Minister he was really looking forward to “get down to it and start implementing those promises”.
Numerous health sector, First Nations, and social welfare, human rights and environmental organisations congratulated the Government on its re-election.
(Croakey has assembled a compendium of these statements here, and they will not be covered further in this column.)
Many of these organisations also urged the Government to pursue a health reform agenda far more ambitious than the very limited commitments it took to the election.
As Croakey’s Dr Melissa Sweet observed: “Labor’s first term ended with a widespread sense that they could, and should, have achieved so much more in critical areas, from climate action to better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to public health and healthcare reform.”
Let’s hope the second term of the Albanese Government sees a willingness to tackle the hard reform questions.
Government
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) issued its regular update on younger people in residential aged care to include the December quarter 2024.
In response to recommendations from the Aged Care Royal Commission the Government in 2021 committed to working towards targets of:
- no people under the age of 65 entering residential aged care by 2022
- no people under the age of 45 living in residential aged care by 2022
- no people under the age of 65 living in residential aged care by 2025.
While the number of people under the age of 65 entering aged care reduced from over 400 in the September quarter 2018 to 65 in the June quarter 2022, it has since bounced along between 40 and 60 people per quarter.
The number of under 45-year-olds living in aged care has trended steadily downwards over time from almost 200 in 2018 to 21 people in the December quarter last year.
Although the number of under 65-year-olds living in aged care has also reduced steadily, there were still over 1,000 in the December quarter last year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the results of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey, which “measured specific biomarkers of chronic disease and nutrition in urine and/or blood samples that were voluntarily provided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants aged 5 years and over across Australia, including very remote areas and discrete Indigenous communities”.
The high-level findings were:
- one in six (15.5 percent) adults had diabetes
- one in four (25.7 percent) adults had an abnormally high total cholesterol level
- one in four (26.6 percent) adults were vitamin D deficient
- the population aged 5 years and over was iodine sufficient.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) released a fact sheet on the storage and management of concentrated 80 percent phenol in Australian medical imaging services.
Patients in Australia and overseas have died or become acutely ill due to the accidental use of concentrated phenol.
The ACSQHC recommended that concentrated 80 percent phenol should only be used in health service organisations for the purpose of podiatric nail surgery; and that if phenol is to be used in medical imaging as a sclerosant, it must be pre-prepared to an appropriate dilution and in a ready-for-use presentation.
This guidance comes almost four years after the English National Health Service issued a National Patient Safety Alert on the subject.
Ahpra announced that 125 GPs from the UK, Ireland and New Zealand have been registered to work in Australia under a fast-track registration system introduced six months ago, together with one anaesthetist and one psychiatrist.
A further 124 applications were under consideration, including 12 from anaesthetists,12 from psychiatrists, and two from obstetricians and gynaecologists, with between 10 and 15 applications lodged each week.
So far 84 percent of applications are from the United Kingdom.
Consumer and public health groups
The Consumers Health Forum (CHF) said the Government needed to act “to fix the deepening divide in healthcare access, starting with dental care”.
CHF CEO Dr Elizabeth Deveny said that “it’s time to bring all of dental into Medicare while also closing the rural health divide”.
“We need a system that serves everybody, from capital cities to the most remote towns,” she said.
“Access to dental care shouldn’t depend on your income or postcode. We must end the postcode lottery in dental health and make the system truly universal.”
National Seniors Australia (NSA) launched a Better Health in the Home campaign, “teaming up with industry experts to find positive and innovative ways to tackle the challenges of our ageing society, specifically the entwined issues of bed shortages and access to aged care”.
NSA said its goal was to find practical solutions to deliver better healthcare in settings outside of hospital.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) held its Prevention in Place Conference, bringing together prevention practitioners, researchers and community leaders from sectors including youth services, justice, disability, mental health, suicide prevention, and alcohol and other drugs.
The ADF called on the re-elected Government “to put early intervention and long-term solutions at the heart of health and social policy”.
ADF CEO Dr Erin Lalor AM said greater investment in prevention was needed to address alcohol and other drug harm before it impacted individuals, families and communities.
Trade unions
The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) marked 5 May as International Day of the Midwife.
ACM said the past year had seen midwives’ scope of practice recognised in the Unleashing the potential of our health work force review; “primary maternity care… being prioritised [with] flow on benefits for rural and remote families”; and the development of a Government-backed homebirth insurance solution to cover midwives providing intrapartum care in the home.
Over the next year ACM said it will contribute to the National Maternity Workforce Strategy 2026–2036. It also looked forward to the re-elected Government delivering on an election commitment to develop a National Midwifery Strategy and appoint a Commonwealth Chief Midwife.
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) called on the Government to “coordinate the urgent establishment of nurse-led pop-up vaccination clinics” to address measles outbreaks.
ACN said that the 71 measles cases already recorded this year were more than the total for 2024.
ACN chief executive Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz said “we need political leaders at the federal, state, territory and local government levels to corral resources to offer MMR catch-up clinics for target populations”.
“We need make sure clinics are accessible to diverse sections of the community,” she said.
“This would complement GP clinics, which are overrun and struggle to provide the flexible service that support families and individuals to get vaccinated”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) set out its reaction to the election in an article published on LinkedIn (too late to be picked up in the Croakey summary).
After saying that the “election represented a missed opportunity for significant, structural reforms to the health system”, the AMA argued that it is time to “get on with the job of pushing for meaningful reform in general practice, public hospitals, private health and more”.
It then reiterated the AMA’s pre-election pitch for a new seven-tier GP consultation item structure, an independent national health workforce planning agency, a new National Health Reform Agreement, an independent private health authority, and a sugar tax.
While I am sure there will be a new National Health Reform Agreement, I can’t see any enthusiasm in the Government for any of the other proposals.
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) also issued a statement on the election outcome, saying APNA was “optimistic about the policy advances that can be achieved in the next term of government and… looked forward to working in this term to achieving a healthier Australia through best practice primary healthcare nursing”.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) marked the latest issue of the Australian Journal of General Practice, which focussed on breast health, including breast cancer early detection and prevention, assessing and managing breast skin changes, and premature breast development.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said that “breast cancer is the most-diagnosed cancer among female patients in Australia and the second-leading cause of female cancer deaths, so it’s an important topic to discuss with your GP”.
Following further warnings about the presence in Australia of the dangerous synthetic opioid nitazene, the RACGP called on state and territory governments “to embrace drug testing services to save lives”.
The Australian Federal Police has found nitazenes in counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and it was also identified by the Queensland drug testing service CheQpoint, which has now been closed by the Queensland Government.
RACGP alcohol and other drug spokesperson, Dr Marguerite Tracy, said “drug testing services, particularly fixed sites that people can visit at times of their choosing, are a sensible harm reduction measure, because it at least gives them some idea of what they’re taking”.
“This is not about condoning illegal drug use,” she said, “it’s about helping people who are taking illicit drugs make an informed decision.”
Tracy also called for more medically supervised injecting sites, expanded access to opioid substitute therapy, such as methadone and buprenorphine, and improving awareness of and access to naxolone (a medication that can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose).
The RACGP also reiterated calls for patients to get a flu vaccination ahead of the peak influenza months.
It said that “despite being eligible for free flu vaccinations, only 32.5 percent of patients aged over 65, and fewer than one in three children, have been vaccinated so far in 2025”.
“ Already, there have been more than 71,000 lab-confirmed flu cases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System,” the College said.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright urged other state governments to follow the lead of Queensland and Western Australia and institute free flu vaccination programs.
Also on flu vaccination, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) welcomed the NSW Government announcement allowing pharmacists to administer influenza vaccines to people from two years of age.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) marked World Asthma Day (6 May) with a statement encouraging patients to get the best bang for their puff, saying that many people are not receiving the correct dose of medicine due to poor inhaler technique.
RDAA President Dr RT Lewandowski said research showed that as many as 94 percent of patients were not using inhalers properly.
He encouraged people to check their technique using the “How To” resources available from the National Asthma Council, and to make an appointment with their GP to review their asthma plan if they were still having trouble managing their symptoms.
The Pharmacy Guild also issued a statement on World Asthma Day, calling on other state Governments to follow Queensland and the Northern Territory in allowing community pharmacists “to provide asthma management plans, support patients to adjust their doses and making sure their asthma remains under control”.
Industry groups
Catholic Health Australia urged the re-elected Government to “expand access to hospital-in-the-home care through introducing minimum insurance payments as Australia falls behind comparable nations, denying patients access to high-quality, affordable care”.
If private health insurers believed hospital-in-the-home would genuinely substitute for admitted patient care they would of course be falling over themselves to pay benefits for it.
However, they are afraid that without rigorous eligibility criteria they will finish up paying for an entirely new stream of hospital-in-the-home patients as well as the existing admitted patient caseload, putting further pressure on premiums.
The Pharmacy Guild said that 100 Queensland community pharmacists were now fully trained and authorised to participate in the Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot, which allowed them to provide treatment for everyday conditions like ear infections, hormonal contraception, nausea and vomiting and mild skin conditions.
The Queensland Government recently announced that from 1 July the pilot will become permanent.
The Pharmacy Guild also marked Heart Week (5-11 May) by calling on state and territory Governments to allow community pharmacists “to take a more active role in heart health management”.
National President Professor Trent Twomey said “all states and territories should let pharmacists do more for heart patients and end the current postcode lottery”.
“Equitable healthcare access for all patients is a cornerstone of quality patient-centred primary care,” he said.
International organisations
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a World report on social determinants of health equity showing that “such determinants can be responsible for a dramatic reduction of healthy life expectancy – sometimes by decades – in high- and low-income countries alike… The social determinants of health equity can influence people’s health outcomes more than genetic influences or access to healthcare”.
WHO said the report was the first since 2008, when the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health released its final report “laying out targets for 2040 for reducing gaps between and within countries in life expectancy, childhood and maternal mortality”.
The current report shows that these targets are likely to be missed.
WHO said “measures to address income inequality, structural discrimination, conflict and climate disruptions are key to overcoming deep-seated health inequities. Climate change, for example, is estimated to push an additional 68-135 million people into extreme poverty over the next five years”.
WHO called for action to:
- address economic inequality and invest in social infrastructure and universal public services
- overcome structural discrimination and the determinants and impacts of conflicts, emergencies and forced migration
- manage the challenges and opportunities of climate action and the digital transformation to promote health equity co-benefits
- promote governance arrangements that prioritize action on the social determinants of health equity.
For those interested in reading more about the report, Croakey editor-in-chief Dr Melissa Sweet has covered it in detail in this article.
Finally
Aged care was barely mentioned as an issue during the recent election campaign, following the Government and the Coalition agreeing on the new Aged Care Act.
However, the introduction of the Support at Home aged care program on 1 July is looking more and more problematic.
This article from Jacob Neeland of the Hello Care website describes the introduction as a “ticking timebomb”, and says the Government has ignored warnings of the program’s “fatal flaws”.
It will be interesting to see if the Coalition Opposition sticks to the unity ticket with the Government, or tries to seek a political advantage as self-funded retirees face contributions to the cost of personal care, independence, or everyday living services of tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Consultations and inquiries
Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Egg food safety and primary production requirements
12 May
Department of Health and Aged Care – Gene Technology Regulator
Limited and controlled release of canola genetically modified for dairy protein production
13 May
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed amendments to the Poisons Standard
21 May
Ahpra
Revised National Prescribing Competencies Framework
30 May
Paramedicine Board of Australia
Proposal to regulate advanced practice paramedics
20 June
Department of Health and Aged Care
Updating clinical guidelines for dementia care
31 December
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
